Lake Lonar in the state of Maharashtra had suddenly changed color in recent days.
Experts believe the change is likely due to increased salinity in the water, the presence of algae, or a combination of both – like parts of Utah’s Great Salt Lake or Hillier Lake in Australia.
Gajanan Kharat, a local geologist, said in a video posted on Maharashtra Tourism’s Twitter feed that it had happened before, but was not as important.
“It looks particularly red this year because this year the salinity of the water has increased,” he said. “The amount of water in the lake has decreased and the lake has become shallower, so the salinity has increased and caused internal changes.”
Kharat said the researchers are also studying whether the presence of red algae caused the color change.
Samples are being sent to several laboratories, he said, and “once they have studied it, we will be able to say definitively why the water in the lake has turned red”.
The lake, which is located about 500 kilometers (311 miles) east of Mumbai, formed after a meteorite hit Earth about 50,000 years ago, according to a CNN subsidiary CNN News 18 It is a popular tourist attraction and has been studied by scientists across the globe, reported CNN News 18.
