Lonar Lake, the world's third-largest crater formed because of a meteorite strike, has turned its colour mysteriously.
The change in the colour of the water from the normal greenish to reddish has so far gone unexplained.
Also read — Lonar lake a gift from the sky
The Lonar Lake or the Lonar Crater is in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra, nearly 500 km off downtown Mumbai. Buldhana district's collector Suman Rawat Chandra posted a photo of the lake on Twitter. "Lonar Lake currently...Wonders of the Nature...Looks like an algae bloom primarily, but microbiologists can tell better...," she posted.
The photos of Lonar Lake turning pink has gone viral on social media platforms.
"Over the past two to three days, a change in colour has been noticed. I have myself inspected the site and took photos and videos," Lonar tehsildar Saifan Nadaf said. He said that the Maharashtra Forest Department has taken samples and are analysing the cause.
The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation too has put up photos of the strange phenomenon. "From Green to Pink; Lonar Crater Lake has changed its colour," it said.
Lonar Lake was first discovered by JE Alexander in 1823 but it finds mention in Skanda Puran, Padma Puran and Aaina-e-Akbari.
The saline, soda lake was formed more than 50,000 years ago when a two million-tonne crater impacted the Earth to create a depression: 1.83 km in diameter and 150 mt deep.
The Smithsonian Institution, the United States Geological Survey, Geological Survey of India, the University of Sagar and the Physical Research Laboratory have conducted extensive studies of the site.
Biological nitrogen fixation was discovered in this lake in 2007.
A study by IIT Bombay found that the minerals, in the lake soil, are very similar to the minerals found in moon rock brought back during Apollo Program.