Interesting Facts of Lonar Crater Lake Aurangabad, Maharashtra

Yet another amazing place we visited while at Aurangabad was the mysterious Lonar Crater Lake.

Lonar Crater Lake: Facts

  • Lonar Lake is included in list of national geological heritage sites India by the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
  • It is a meteoric crater and not a volcanic crater. Both are obviously different.
  • This lake was first discovered by a British officer C.J.E Alexander in the year 1823.
  • Lonar Lake ranks among the world’s 5 largest craters and is the 3rd largest saltwater lake in the world.

How Lonar Crater Lake was formed

Now this is really intriguing… how did such a big lake appear or form? The guide who accompanied us gave a brief idea but reading up on this lake provided some more information.

Many interplanetary bodies move around in space. Some of these outer space bodies enter the Earth’s atmosphere; we call them shooting stars when we see them at night.

The small ones get burnt off and when a giant one hits the Earth’s surface we get Craters like that at LONAR 165km east of Aurangabad. This place was hit by a meteorite 52,000 years ago and it has left a dent in the surface of the earth like a huge circular bowl with a diameter of 2km!

The depth caused around 1.2km! It is a gentle slope with no cover of trees till you reach near the lake. From where I was standing, just before the descent to the Lonar Lake, it was not possible to capture the entire crater in one photo frame. I have put two pictures of it here.

Right side of the lake

Lake to your right

Lonar crater lake left side

Lonar crater lake left side

“This is the only hyper velocity impact crater in Basaltic rock” mentioned on a plaque there. Many millions of meteorites must have hit the earth’s surface; of them many have got eroded and erased by the ravages of time.

Today only 140 craters in the surface of our world are in records. The Lonar Crater is one in the list and is situated in Buldhana district of Maharashtra. It is 165km. from Aurangabad.

References of Lonar Crater in Mythology

  • There is mention of this crater in ancient scriptures like Padma Puran and Skanda Puran.
  • The lake is referred to as Panchapsar in the Valmiki Ramayan. Epic poet Kalidas too has mentioned this lake in his literary work titled Raghuvansh around 16 centuries ago. The name Panchapsar was derived from the fact that there are as many as 5 streams which feed the lake.
  • It is believed that when Lord Rama was flying overhead on his way from Sri Lanka to his kingdom Ayodhya, he showed a place to his Queen Sita. Researchers are of opinion that Lord Rama was referring to this lake at Lonar.
  • There are references of it even in Aaina-e-Akbari, the third volume of the Akbarnama, authored during the later period of the Mughal era.

Discovery of Lonar Crater in Buldhana

It was sort of rediscovered by C J E Alexander in 1823. Interestingly the first opinion about it was that it was a volcanic crater. However after some research this was confirmed to be meteoric crater.

hyper-velocity impact crater - Lonar Lake

Hyper-velocity impact crater – Lonar Lake

Geological Significance and Scientific Studies

This crater was declared as an impact crater after a lot of study and debates for almost a century and half. The initial confusion was over whether it is a volcanic crater as it was situated in the volcanic region of Deccan plateau.

In 1952, a geologist C A Cotton, in his work stated that there has been almost nil volcanic processes in the Indian subcontinent, and so he stated that Lonar Crater has meteoric origin.

Two other scientists N. C. Nandy and V. B. Deo surveyed the crater site and checked for volcanic remains like cooled lava. In 1964 Eugene C Lafond and Robert S. Dietz too came to the conclusion that it is an impact crater and estimated its origin to be about 52,000 years ago. This crater is thus stated to be one of the youngest craters in the world.

Interesting Facts of Lonar Crater Lake Aurangabad, Maharashtra

Lonar Crater Lake Geographical Facts

The crater is circular in shape and the depth to diameter ratio is typical of an impact crater. The raised rim of the crater is 20m above the surrounding. The surrounding rock dips away from the crater edge at angles of 14 to 27 degrees. These factors are indicative that the Lonar crater is of impact origin.

The crater floor is flat and is filled with saline water. The descent was steep, just rocks cut at some places and uncut for most part. Trekking here in monsoons can be a real challenge and adventurous one.

Trek down to Lonar Crater Lake

Flora and Fauna in Lonar Crater

As we descended the rim and reached the banks of the crater we found ourselves in a thick forest. I had read that the dense cover housed birds like peacocks, partridges, weaver birds, long beaked Green Bee Eaters and also animals like gazelle, iguana, and rabbits. We strained ourselves if we could spot any and all we could see there were a few langoors.

After that strenuous descent in scorching sun, the forest cover provided us the well deserved shade and cool breeze. The sounds of the birds, butterflies and the sights of scampering squirrels refreshed us a lot.

We kept walking and then all of a sudden there was this clearing among the huge trees and the lake was visible.

mysterious crater lake in Lonar, Aurangabad

Mysterious crater lake in Lonar, Aurangabad

Water of Lonar Lake

Curiosity couldn’t hold us and we were in fact rushing the last few steps to get to the banks of Lonar Lake. I wanted to taste the water there, as I had read before that the water tasted salty.

One look at the water and I decided to be content with the visual treat of the emerald green water there. The water was not dirty, but it was green due to rich growth of algae in it.

Algae growth

Water of Lonar Lake

Algae growth in Water of Lonar Lake

There is no outlet for this water body other than evaporation, which may be the reason for its salinity. Some water birds were swimming at a distance, which indicated the water was fit enough for animals to survive in it.

Ishani on seeing the boys there commented wishfully, “How lucky they are to have a whole crater to play around and swim in”! The boys there filled a bottle with crater water for us. They were in fact encouraging us to taste it for its salinity but we didn’t dare to.

Also read Temples around Lonar Lake

Boys playing in Lonar lake

Location of Lonar Lake

Lonar is a town and municipal council in Buldhana district of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, India. You can reach Lonar Lake by road from various big cities. Nearest airport is at Aurangabad. Distances from different cities is as below:

Nagpur – 360km
Buldhana in north west – 91.6km
Akola in northeast – 124km
Aurangabad – 160km
Ajanta caves – 140km
Mumbai – 550km

Where to Stay near Lonar Lake

Since I planned the vacation around Aurangabad, I stayed in Aurangabad city. But if you plan to explore Lonar Lake well then a stay just near the lake is advised. You can stay at the MTDC Buldhana Resort. It is a good option for food, we had lunch here.

Best Time to Visit

Winters is the best time (October to February). I planned my visit there during Christmas vacation of kids. Trek to Lonar Lake early part of day or after noon. In any case get back before sunset.

Pin this for later…

Lonar Crater in BULDHANA

(This post was first published on March 18, 2008.)

Temples around Lonar Lake Buldhana, Aurangabad, Maharashtra
Asian Openbill Storks in Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

24 Responses to “Interesting Facts of Lonar Crater Lake Aurangabad, Maharashtra

  • We missed this when we visited as we were short of time! Great post; hopefully i can visit some time.

  • Super cool!
    My kind of place. 🙂

    Thank you Indrani. 🙂

  • Lately I have been fascinated by meteorite hits on earth and then I get to read this post of yours! Loved it 🙂

  • Very interesting-I did not know about it’s existence before.

  • Lovely pictures. Interesting place. Thanks for sharing

  • Very interesting and info

  • Maniparna Sengupta Majumder
    8 years ago

    Adding this to my list. The geographical facts are quite interesting!

  • This is all past , but what happens if any meteorite hits in future. Same as it many lakes in Himalayas are as a result of Volcano.

  • Great info. Liking the Aurangabad series 🙂

  • A well written Post with great information, Indrani.. Beautiful Photographs of the place.. Thanks for sharing the Post!

  • wow! Such a beautiful place. I didn’t know about this place. Thanks to your blog that I get to know about so many wonderful places 🙂

  • Wow what an interesting place to visit!

  • Had read about this and its in one of my list…

  • very interesting, Have heard of this, now after seeing your pictures, now its in my visit list. Cant wait for my children to grow older though.

  • WoW…some very beautifully captured shots…simply love the place through your lens……Wish U a Happy Holi. May this Holi brings a lot of joy and happiness in our life & Wish that your life becomes colorful as the colors of Holi..

    I am a bit too busy with my work now, which will continue, so couldn’t visit your blog for sometime…anyway, I will check your other posts later whenever I will get the break.

  • ranga- thanks 😉

    indicaspecies and laksmi- wait for the next post when I show you the snaps of water there.

  • What an amazing post..so did you get into the waters ? I remember going to one in Costa Rica or San salvador …dont remember abt 10 years ago..apparently there is one closer home too, but am not sure ..will research more and let you know

  • Interesting post. Thank you for sharing.

    Did you taste the waters?

  • “This place was hit by a meteorite 52,000 years ago and it has left a dent in the surface of the earth like a huge saucer.”

    Nice to know that some one can say with so much confidence that an object from the outer space created the crater and that was exactly 52,000 years ago!!

  • You’re right, most craters are volcanic; but I think I’ve been to a (small) meteorite… Where? Can’t remember… 🙁
    Anyhow, Lonar is impressive and looks beautiful. A bit like Seven Cities in the Azores; the difference being that in São Miguel one of the lakes is blue and the other looks green…

  • Your first-hand account is turning out to be a real blogger’s guide to Aurangabad. Hope there are more treasures that you will continue to uncover for us (of late) armchair / desktop travellers!

  • GMG: I visited your blogposts. Amazing, the number of places u have visited. All three of them are volcanic craters.

    Lonar is different, it is a meteoritic impact crater. The meteorite is still believed to be embedded few kilometers below at that spot. Thanks for those eyeopeners.

    Raji: Thanks.

  • Interesting and informative article, and as usual excellent photographs. Now I want to go and see it all, too.

  • Great pictures of a beautiful looking place. I’ve enjoyed it very much. Lonar crater is added to my list!
    Now, as far as your comment: «I am sure you have never seen a crater», I’ll mention: S.Miguel, Azores, Faial, Azores and Vesuvius, just to name three… ;)))
    Enjoy and have a great week!

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