India’s landscapes are quietly revealing proof of cosmic collisions wherein asteroids hit Earth, leaving craters that typically flip into lakes. These uncommon remnants of cosmic occasions are fascinating as a result of they present cosmic influences, erosion, and the way nature adapts. Most of India’s identified influence websites do not need everlasting lakes, however a number of areas have or as soon as had water-filled craters. Check out 5 crater lakes in India that had been fashioned by meteorite impacts.
lonar lake, maharashtra
Lake Lonar (Photograph: Wikipedia)
That is India’s most well-known and solely crater lake with a completely confirmed meteorite presence. Situated within the basaltic Deccan Traps, this roughly round despair was fashioned by the influence of a high-velocity meteorite and is now estimated to have occurred between about 50,000 and a most of about 570,000 years in the past. The presence of “mascellinite” (a glassy type of plagioclase that varieties solely underneath excessive shock) and different shocked minerals helps its extraterrestrial origin. The lake itself is situated roughly 137 m beneath the crater rim, is roughly 1.2 km in diameter, and incorporates extremely alkaline, saline water. The realm across the crater is a mix of historical temples, wildlife sanctuaries, and non secular, scientific, and fragile ecosystems. ecological surprise
