Lonar crater lake

           Lonar is a town and municipal council in Buldhana district of Vidarbha region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The town is the headquarter of Lonar taluka and is located near Mehkar. Lonar is famous for Lonar crater and Lonar Lake, which is located at 19°58′N 76°30′E. It is a meteorite crater created in the Pleistocene Epoch. The crater contains salt water lake 1.8 km in diameter and about 137 m below the level of the crater rim.

                  A small fresh water stream drains into the lake. Due to evaporite effects, the lake is mineral rich and salty and sodium and potassium salts are extracted from it. A series of low hills surround the basin which has an oval shape (almost round) with circumference at top of about 8 km (five miles). The sides of the basin rise abruptly at an angle of about 75°. At the base, the lake has a circumference of about 4.8 km (three miles). The slopes are covered with tree-savannah, housing teak (Tectona grandis), Wrightia tinctoria, Butea monosperma, and Helicteres isora. Shrub-savannah with Acacia nilotica and Ziziphus spp. covers the crater wall. Along the lake shore, non-native Prosopis juliflora is spreading.The northeastern alluvial terrace, along the dhara river fan, is used for agriculture. Millet, maize, lady's finger, banana and papaya are the main cultivated crops.

              The water of the lake contains various salts or sodas, and during dry weather when evaporation reduces the water level, large quantities of soda are collected. Two small streams, named Purna and Penganga,[12] drain into the lake, and a well of sweet water is located on the southern side, close to the water's edge.

                   Lonar Lake lies within the only known extraterrestrial impact crater found within the great Deccan Traps basaltic formation of India.The lake was initially believed to be of volcanic origin, but now it is recognized as an impact crater created by the hypervelocity impact of either a comet or an asteroid. The presence of plagioclase that has been either converted into maskelynite or contains planar deformation features (PDFs) has confirmed the impact origin of this crater. It is argued that only shock metamorphism caused by hypervelocity impact can transform plagioclase into maskelynite or create PDFs. The presence of shatter cones, impact deformation of basalt layers comprising its rim, shocked breccia inside the crater, and non-volcanic ejecta blanket surrounding the crater are further proof of the impact origin of Lonar crater.
                   The crater has an oval shape. The meteorite impact came from the east, at an angle of 35 to 40 degrees. There are various estimates of the age of the crater. Earlier thermoluminescence analyses gave a result of 52,000 years, while recent Argon-argon dating suggests that the crater is much older; it could be 570 000 ± 47 000 years old. This greater age is in line with the degree of erosion processes of crater rims.