52,000 years ago, a meteor of around 60 meter in diameter crashed in Maharashtra and created third biggest natural salt-water lake in the world. Today, Lonar Lake is the stuff of sci-fi.
Lonar is one of the best kept secret of maharashtra. The Lonar crater was formed fifty-two thousand years ago, when a meteor weighing 2 million tonnes crashed into the earth at an estimated speed of 90,000 kmph. The impact created a hole which was 1.8km wide and 150m deep. From the pack of meteors that plummet towards the Earth from 30,000 to 1,50,000 each year this one managed to create the Earth’s largest and only hyper-velocity impact crater in basaltic rock. These has been a lot of study on Lonar Lake by NASA and Geological Survey of India still questions such as “Why is the lake alkaline and saline at the same time? Why does it support micro-organisms rarely found elsewhere on Earth? Why do compasses fail to work in certain parts of the crater? And what lurks at the bottom?” are still unanswered.
Slowly with the increase of tourism industry in India the Lonar Crater Lake has slowly gained interest between the trekkers and many from Mumbai, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra have started visiting this place. The Lonar lake is around 150 KM from aurangaband and 500 KM from Mumbai. The place is important not just for its crater lake, it is important also for its wonderful temples. Today, however, nothing but the ruins of the temple remains.
The Itinerant Analyst 