Lonar Lake

Lonar Lake
View of Lonar crater from the rim
View of Lonar crater (Buldhana district, Maharashtra) from the rim
Location of Lonar lake within Maharashtra, India
Location of Lonar lake within Maharashtra, India
Lonar Lake
Location in Maharashtra, India
LocationLonar, Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India
Coordinates19°58′30″N 76°30′27″E / 19.97500°N 76.50750°E / 19.97500; 76.50750
Typeimpact crater lake, salt lake
Basin countries India
Max. length1,830 m (6,000 ft)
Surface area1.13 km2 (0.44 sq mi)
Average depth137 m (449 ft)
Max. depth150 m (490 ft)
Water volume0.15 km3 (0.036 cu mi)
Residence timeIST
Surface elevation480 m (1,570 ft)
SettlementsLonar, near Buldhana city
Referencesearthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/8654/lonar-crater-india
Designated22 July 2020
Reference no.2441[1]

Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a saline, soda lake, located at Lonar, 79 km from Buldhana city in Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India. It is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument.[2][3][4]

Lonar Lake is in an impact crater created by a meteorite impact during the Pleistocene Epoch.[5][6] 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.[7] 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.[8]

Although the crater's age was previously estimated to be 52,000 ± 6,000 years,[9] newer studies suggest an age of 576,000 ± 47,000 years.[10][11]

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.[12] 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.[13]

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.[14][15] Biological nitrogen fixation was discovered in this lake in 2007.[16]

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.[17] The lake was declared a protected Ramsar site in November 2020.[18]

  1. ^ "Lonar Lake". rsis.ramsar.org. Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  2. ^ "National Geological Monument". portal.gsi.gov.in. Geological Survey of India. Archived from the original on 12 July 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  3. ^ "Geo-Heritage Sites". pib.nic.in.
  4. ^ national geo-heritage of India Archived 11 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, INTACH
  5. ^ "Geology". Government of Maharashtra. Gazetteers Department. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  6. ^ "Lonar Lake, Buldana District, Maharashtra". Geological Survey of India. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  7. ^ Crósta, A.P.; Reimold, W.U.; Vasconcelos, M.A.R.; Hauser, N.; Oliveira, G.J.G.; Maziviero, M.V.; Góes, A.M. (April 2019). "Impact cratering: The South American record – Part 1". Geochemistry. 79 (1): 1–61. Bibcode:2019ChEG...79....1C. doi:10.1016/j.chemer.2018.06.001. S2CID 134656351.
  8. ^ Deshpande, Rashmi (3 December 2014). "The Meteor Mystery Behind Lonar Lake". National Geographic Traveller India. National Geographic Group. Archived from the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  9. ^ "Lonar". Earth Impact Database. Planetary and Space Science Centre University of New Brunswick Fredericton. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
  10. ^ Jourdan, Fred; Moynier, Frederic; Koeberl, Christian; Eroglu, Sümeyya (2011). "40Ar/39Ar age of the Lonar crater and consequence for the geochronology of planetary impacts". Geology. 39 (7): 671–674. Bibcode:2011Geo....39..671J. doi:10.1130/G31888.1.
  11. ^ Schmieder, Martin; Kring, David A. (2020). "Earth's impact events through geologic time: A List of Recommended Ages for Terrestrial Impact Structures and Deposits". Astrobiology. 20 (1): 91–141. Bibcode:2020AsBio..20...91S. doi:10.1089/ast.2019.2085. PMC 6987741. PMID 31880475.
  12. ^ Dhayade, Kundan, ed. (29 November 2004). "Earth observatory NASA". earthobservatory.nasa.gov.
  13. ^ Malu, Ram (18 December 2002). "Lonar crater saline lake, an ecological wonder in India". International Society for Salt Lake Research. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. ^ "Lonar". The Planetary and Space Science Center. University of New Brunswick. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  15. ^ Babar, Rohit. "Lonar, A Gem of Craters". Office of Space Science Education. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  16. ^ Avinash A. Raut and Shyam S. Bajekal; Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria from Hypervelocity meteorite impact Lonar Crater; in Special Issue of Research Journal of Biotechnology; December 2008 and Avinash A. Raut and Shyam S. Bajekal; "Nitrogen Fixing Actinomycetes from Saline Alkaline Environment of Lonar Lake: A Meteorite Impact Crater", in Journal of Environmental Research and Development, Vol. 3, No. 3, January–March 2009.
  17. ^ "Mineral contents of Buldhana's Lonar lake similar to moon rocks: IIT-Bombay study". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  18. ^ Vivek Deshpande (13 November 2020). "Lonar's meteor lake declared Ramsar site". The Indian Express.