Lonar Lake

Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a saline, soda lake, located at Lonar, 79 km from Buldhana in Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India. It is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument.

Lonar Lake is in an impact crater created by a meteorite impact during the Pleistocene Epoch. It is one of only four known hyper-velocity impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth. The other three basaltic impact structures are in southern Brazil. Lonar Lake has a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometres (3,900 ft) and is about 137 metres (449 ft) below the crater rim. The meteor crater rim is about 1.8 kilometres (5,900 ft) in diameter.

Although the crater's age was previously estimated to be 52,000 ± 6,000 years, newer studies suggest an age of 576,000 ± 47,000 years.

Lonar Crater sits inside the Deccan Plateau – a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock created by eruptions some 65 million years ago. Its location in this basalt field suggested to some geologists that it was a volcanic crater. Today, however, Lonar Crater is understood to be the result of a meteorite impact. The water in the lake is both saline and alkaline.

Geologists, ecologists, archaeologists, naturalists and astronomers have published studies on various aspects of the ecosystem of this crater lake.

The Smithsonian Institution, the United States Geological Survey, Geological Survey of India, the University of Sagar and the Physical Research Laboratory have conducted extensive studies of the site. Biological nitrogen fixation was discovered in this lake in 2007.

A 2019 study, conducted by IIT Bombay found that the minerals in the lake soil are very similar to the minerals found in Moon rocks brought back during the Apollo Program. The lake was declared a protected Ramsar site in November 2020.

An endorheic or closed basin, almost circular in shape, formed by a meteorite impact some 50,000 years ago, onto the basalt bedrock. It is one of the four known, hyper-velocity, impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth. It is high in salinity and alkalinity, as the lack of an outflow leads to a concentration of minerals as the lake water evaporates. Fauna includes the vulnerable Asian woolly-necked stork (Ciconia episcopus) and common pochard (Aythya ferina) and the grey wolf (Canis lupus). It is a National Geological Monument recognized by the Geological Survey of India (GSI). It is the only crater lake in the country formed by the meteorite impact. It was identified as a unique geographical site by British officer C. J. E. Alexander in 1823. Hemadpanti temples are located at the periphery of the lake. Recently, the color of Lonar lake water had turned pink due to a large presence of the salt-loving "haloarchaea" microbes. Haloarchaea or halophilic archaea is a bacteria culture that produces pink pigment and is found in water saturated with salt.