New Delhi (NVI): The oval-shaped Lonar lake in Maharashtra’s Bidhana district turned pink recently during the early days of this month. This unusual and mysterious phenomenon was observed by NASA Earth which was detected via its Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8.
The Lonar lake was formed after a meteorite hit the Earth around 50,000 years ago, and is a popular tourist hub and also attracts scientists from across the world. The mean diameter of the lake is around 1.2 km.
Located in India’s west-central state of Maharashtra, the lake sits in the volcanic basalt of the Deccan Plateau and is the only “fresh” impact structure in basalt on Earth.
After the colour of the lake turned pink, not only the locals were surprised, but it also intrigued nature enthusiasts and scientists as well.
According to a statement by NASA’s Earth Observatory, scientists speculated that the change in colour could be a result of microscopic life that thrives in water with high salt concentrations like Lake Hillier in Australia. Lonar Lake’s color shift occurred over the span of a few days.
However, as of yet, the scientists could not claim that with certainty and are awaiting lab results of the samples collected from the mysterious lake to ascertain the cause of colour change.
-CHK/ARK
