With weird events happening every day in 2020 it’s not a surprise that something happened again. Recently it was observed that the 50,000-year-old lonar lake turned reddish-pink last week. The 113-hectare lonar lake is said to be created by an asteroid collision with earth during the Pleistocene epoch some 50,000 years ago. the lonar lake is found in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra and is a very famous tourist spot.
The weird thing about this is that a similar phenomenon has been reported from the Talawe wetlands in Navi Mumbai where one section of the wetland turned pink after the incident the Maharashtra forest department requested the Lonar national environment engineering institute Nagpur to figure out why there has been a sudden change In color of the lake. Water samples are being sent to the institute and it is estimated that the reports will come out in about two days. Some local residents had informed the authorities that the water change happened last year too but it was not this dense.
The scientists think that such change in colour is due the algal growth which generally happens during summers where water level reduces and the salinity of the water increases due to which there is a boom in the algal Lonar growth which changes the colour of the water. The case in Talawe is because of the rapid growth of algae and halobacterium growing in the extremely high saline environment which has beta carotene which reacts and gives the effect of colouration.
The lake is located 500 km from Mumbai and over 90km from the Buldhana city. The lonar lake is part of the 383-hectare lonar wildlife sanctuary and is famous for its unique magnetic properties. one thing unique of the lake is that it is alkaline as well as saline simultaneously and the water level is not equal everywhere and it changes as we move from one end to another. It also forms different ecosystems and different parts of the lake. the lake is considered to be a mystery of nature because of its features.
