Science Daily brings us the news that a giant (~200 mile diameter) impact crater has been found (maybe) buried deep beneath the Antarctic ice. They theorize that this impact could have caused the Permian-Triassic extinction. This extinction is believed to be Earth's largest, with more than 70 percent of all species dying off, and cleared the plate, so to speak, for the rise of the dinosaurs.
The article also mentions the Vredefort crater in South Africa. The 2-billion year old crater is still officially the largest impact crater found on Earth. It can be seen pretty clearly here using Google maps. Amateur geologists have found perviously unknown impact craters using Google Earth. That seems like a pretty fun hobby to me.
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