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A meteorite scar in the Deccan lava — and one of the very few impact craters on Earth punched into hard basalt.

Lonar is a meteorite impact crater, blasted out when a space rock slammed into the thick basalt lava of the Deccan Traps during the Pleistocene — on the order of tens of thousands of years ago, though its exact age is still debated. It is scientifically prized because it is one of the few well-preserved impact craters formed in basaltic rock, which makes it a useful analogue for studying craters on other rocky, basalt-covered worlds.

Today the crater cradles a saline, alkaline lake, and the wetland is recognised internationally as a Ramsar site.

Sources

• Geological Survey of India
• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

A short reference note: this summary draws on third-party sources such as the Geological Survey of India and Wikipedia. In time I plan to give every geological feature its own learning-oriented write-up — with custom diagrams, graphs, and study pointers — as I’ve already done for the 11 locations that have an Instagram reel.