| Home
» LONAR CRATER

Lonar
Lake is a saltwater lake at Lonar in Buldana district, Maharashtra,
India, which was created by a meteor hitting the Earth during
the Pleistocene Epoch.The impact crater thereby formed is
the only hypervelocity meteoritic impact crater on basalt
rock. A lake that evolved in the resulting basaltic rock formation,
is both saline and alkaline in nature. Geologists, ecologists,
archaeologists, naturalists and astronomers have reported
several studies on the various aspects of this crater lake
ecosystem.[4] 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. The circular depression bears a saline water
lake in its central portion.[5] The crater's age is usually
estimated to be 52,000 ± 6,000 years (Pleistocene),although
a study published in 2010 gives an age of 656,000 ±
81,000 years.The Smithsonian Institution, the United States
Geological Survey, Geological Society of India, and University
of Sagar and the Physical Research Laboratory have conducted
extensive studies about the site. Biological nitrogen fixation
has been discovered in this lake in the year 2007.
|