Recent study revealed that the colour of water in Lonar lake in Maharashtra is due to a large presence of the salt-loving Haloarchaea microbes.
Haloarchaea or halophilic archaea is a bacteria culture, which produces pink pigment, and found in water saturated with salt.
Absence of rain, less human interference and high temperature could have resulted in the evaporation of water, increasing salinity and pH levels in the lake.
The 56,000-year-old Lonar crater sanctuary lake in Buldhana district, Maharashtra has turned red/pink, most probably due to salinity and presence of halophilic archaea bacteria in the water body.
Lonar Lake was created by a meteor impact during the Pleistocene Epoch.
It is the only known hyper velocity meteorite crater in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth.
It was notified as a National Geo-heritage Monument in 1979 by Geological Survey of India (GSI).
