Lonar

Lonar is known for the salt water lake of size of 1.8 km diameter, created by the impact of meteor some 50000 years ago. Lonar town gets its name from this lake. This is a municipal council in Buldhana district of the division of Buldhana of the region of Vidarbha in the Indian state of Maharashtra. This is 1.8 km in diameter & almost like a perfect circle. The depth is almost 200 feet. It is a taluka of the district of Buldhana and is located near Mehkar. It is known for Lonar crater and Lonar Lake, which is located at 19°58′N 76°30′E / 19.967°N 76.500°E / 19.967; 76.500 (Lonar Lake). There is a 12-inch sweet water stream, which got into surface after this impact, keeps pouring the water into lake. Lake still remains as sultry as Sea water. | image_skyline = Lonar crater.jpg

Lonar is situated around 360 km from Nagpur, around 100 km from Buldhana, around 100 km from Akola, 550 km from Mumbai, around 160 km from Aurangabad and around 140 km southeast of the Ajanta Caves, about 4½ hours drive via Buldhana.

Lonar crater lake

Lonar Lake is a saline soda lake located at Lonar in Buldhana district, Maharashtra, India, which was created by a meteor impact during the Pleistocene Epoch and it is the only hyper velocity impact crater in basaltic rock anywhere on earth.

This lake, which lies in a basalt impact structure, is both saline and alkaline in nature. Geologists, ecologists, archaeologists, naturalists and astronomers have published studies of various aspects of this crater lake ecosystem. Lonar Lake has a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometres (3,900 ft) and is about 137 metres (449 ft) below the crater rim. The meteor crater rim is about 1.8 kilometres (5,900 ft) in diameter.

The circular depression bears a saline water lake in its central portion. The crater's age is usually estimated to be 52,000 ± 6,000 years (Pleistocene), although a study published in 2010 gives an age of 570,000 ± 47,000 years.

The Smithsonian Institution, the United States Geological Survey, Geological Society 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.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the western United States, located in south-central Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot (655 m)-deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. With a depth of 1,943 feet (592 m), the lake is the deepest in the United States, and the seventh or ninth deepest in the world, depending on whether average or maximum depth is measured.

Crater Lake is also known for the "Old Man of the Lake", a full-sized tree which is now a stump that has been bobbing vertically in the lake for over a century. The low temperature of the water has slowed the decomposition of the wood, hence the longevity of the bobbing tree.

Buldhana district

Buldhana district (Marathi: बुलढाणा जिल्हा) is a district in the Amravati division of Maharashtra state in western India. It is situated at the westernmost border of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and is 500 km from the state capital, Mumbai. It is bounded by Madhya Pradesh on the north, Akola, Washim, and Amravati districts on the east, Jalna district on the south, and Jalgaon and Aurangabad districts on the west. Buldhana district is one of the religiously important district. It has Shri Gajanan maharaj temple, at Shegaon. Which is worth to see.

Origin of name

The name of the district is derived probably from Bhil Thana (place of Bhils, a tribal group).

History

Buldhana, along with the rest of Berar Province, was part of the kingdom of Vidarbha mentioned in the Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic poem. Berar formed part of the Maurya Empire during the reign of Ashoka (272–231 BCE). Berar came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty (2nd century BCE–2nd century CE), the Vakataka dynasty (3rd to 6th centuries), the Chalukya dynasty (6th to 8th centuries), the Rashtrakuta Dynasty (8th to 10th centuries), the Chalukyas again (10th to 12th centuries), and finally the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri (late 12th to early 14th centuries). A period of Muslim rule began when Alauddin Khilji, Sultan of Delhi, conquered the region in the early 14th century. The region was part of the Bahmani Sultanate, which broke away from the Delhi Sultanate in the mid-14th century. The Bahmani Sultanate broke up into smaller sultanates at the end of the 15th century, and in 1572 Berar became part of the Nizam Shahi sultanate, based at Ahmednagar. The Nizam Shahis ceded Berar to the Mughal Empire in 1595. As Mughal rule started to unravel at the start of the 18th century, Asaf Jah I, Nizam of Hyderabad, seized the southern provinces of the empire (including Berar) in 1724, forming an independent state.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra (/mɑːhəˈrɑːʃtrə/; Marathi pronunciation: locally: [məharaːʂʈrə], abbr. MH) is a state in the western region of India and is the nation's third largest state by area and is also the world's second-most populous sub-national entity. It has over 110 million inhabitants and its capital, Mumbai, has a population of approximately 18 million. Nagpur serves as second capital as well as winter capital of the state. Maharashtra's business opportunities along with its potential to offer a higher standard of living attract migrants from all over India.

Ancient and medieval Maharashtra included the empires of the Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukyas, Mughals and Marathas. Spread over 118,809 sq mi (307,710 km²), it is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Indian states of Karnataka, Telangana, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The major rivers of the state are Godavari, Krishna, Narmada and Tapi. The state has several tourist destinations including the popular Hindu places of pilgrimage, Pandharpur, Dehu and Alandi. Other places that attract pilgrims from other parts of India and beyond include Hazur Sahib Gurudwara at Nanded, and Sai Baba shrine at Shirdi. Maharashtra is the second most urbanised state in India, after Tamil Nadu, with large cities besides the capital Mumbai such as Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad.