Worlds only hyper velocity impact crater-The Lonar Lake

 

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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