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A Meteorite Crater Lake in India Just Mysteriously Changed Colour Overnight
Lonar lake on 11 June 2019 and 10 June 2020. (Copernicus Sentinel/ESA via Marco Langbroek/Twitter)
AFP 12 JUNE 2020
A crater lake in India's western Maharashtra state has turned pink overnight, delighting nature enthusiasts and surprising experts who attributed it to changing salinity levels and the presence of algae in the water.
Lonar lake, formed some 50,000 years after a meteorite crashed into Earth, is located 500 kilometres (310 miles) from India's financial capital Mumbai and is a popular hotspot for tourists and environmentalists.
As photos of the lake's new flamingo-hued waters began to circulate on social media, experts said that although Lonar had changed colour in the past, the transformation had never been so sharp before.
Link to tweet
"Salinity in the lake has increased as water level has gone down drastically this year and it has become warmer too resulting in overgrowth of algae," geologist Gajanan Kharat said in a video posted by the state-run Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation on Twitter.
"This algae turns reddish in warmer temperatures and hence the lake turned pink overnight," Kharat explained.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/crater-lake-in-india-has-changed-colour-overnight
