Lonar Lake
Lonar Sanctuary is a small sanctuary spread over only 3.8 sq.km surrounds the famous Lonar Crater. The Crater is notified National Geo-heritage Monument. It is located at Lonar town in Buldhana district, Maharashtra. Within the only known Extraterrestrial impact Crater found within the great Deccan traps basaltic formation. It is recognized as an impact crater by the hypervelocity impact of either a comet or an asteroid. While Lonar Lake is famous for being the largest basaltic impact crater. | ||
| The Crater was formed 52000 year ago, when a blazing ball of fire crashed into the Earth at an estimated speed of 90000 km per hour, weighing 2 million tonnes. Lonar is named after the demon, Lonasura, and is ringed by fascinating temples, including one with erotic sculptures reminiscent of Khajuraho. The Lonar Crater is the only crater in Basaltic rock formed by a meteorite impact in India ranking the 3rd biggest in the world. United states Geographic Survey in America, the Geological Society of India and Physical Research Laboratory of India have done a lot of research on this lake. Lonar ranks amongst the world’s five largest craters. Lonar Lake, which was created by a meteor hitting the Earth during the Pleistocene epoch, is a saltwater lake at Lonar in Buldana district. 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. | ||