Hello
guys, welcome back with a new post. In this post we will move on the journey
towards Worlds only hyper velocity impact crater-The Lonar Lake which is
situated in Buldhana district Maharashtra ,140 km form Sambhaji Nagar.
Lonar
lake is blessed with natural beauty and it attracts many tourists and trekkers
to visit. In rainy season it is full loaded with greenery.
Who discovered Lonar Lake?
The lake
was first mentioned in ancient scriptors like skanda purana and padma purana.
Lonar
lake causing confusion among scientists since it was identified. It was
discovered by British officer C.J.E.Alexander in 1823. And he was the first
European to visit Lonar Lake.
How it is formed?
The Lonar
crater sits inside the Deccan Plateau ,so In early days it was believed and
estimated that the lonar lake was created by great volcanic eruptions. by
doing detailed study by our scientists, it was recognized as that the lake was
created by impact crater. An impact of either a comet or of meteorite
nearly 52000 years ago.
It was
estimated that this meteorite weighs nearly two million tons. And the way
in which it has left the impact it must travel with the speed of 90000 km/hr.
So what are Meteorites ? Lets take a short look on
what are Meteorites?
Meteorites
are piece of comet or asteroid which are moving in sun’s orbit like other
planets, stars and like other space bodies.
By an
incident if it is collide with other space bodies and enters in earth orbit ;
this can be threaten the earth. But when it enters the earth atmosphere due to
friction with air molecules it burn completely and there is no impact to earth.
But if it is unburnt and it survives it will gave the huge impact like Lonar
crater .
we
will discuss in detail about space bodies in our upcoming posts.
Some Information:
In 2019
IIT Bombay did the detailed study and it was found that the minerals in the
lake of soil are very similar to minerals found in moon rocks brought back
during apollo programs.
Lonar
lake is both having saline and alkaline water at same time.it has salinity
about 7000mg/l and having PH about 10.5. so it has highly alkaline water the
fishes does not exist in that water.
It has
unique chemical composition which supports the several microorganisms which
rarely found on our planet.
The lake
was declared a protected Ramsar site in 2020.
There are
only known four impact craters salty lakes on our planet. One is our Lonar Lake
and other three are in Southern Brazil.
Why water color changed to pink?
In
2020,water has mysteriously adopted a pinkish hue.
By
detailed study by various institutions , it was concluded that the main reason
behind the changing color is saline water. And its increasing day by day.
It has
large presence of salt loving haloarchaea microbes which produces pink pigments
.
So its
enough for today, stay tuned for more interesting ,curious content.
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