Bird's eye view of Lonar crater in India

Below in the link to an image of the Lonar Crater in India, captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) flying on NASA's Terra satellite. It was identified in 1823 by a British officer named C.J.E. Alexander, it sits inside the Deccan Plateau a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock leftover from eruptions some 65 million years ago. The stimulated true-color image offers some details on the surrounding area with pink-beige indicating bare ground, blue and offwhite indicate man made structures, dark blue indicates water, dark green indicated vegetation and dull purple fallow fields. The crater is filled by a vegetation lined lake. The Crater is approximately 150 meters (500 feet) deep, with an average diameter of almost 1,830 meters (6,000 feet). The rim of the crater rises roughly 20 meters (65 feet) above the surrounding land surface. It is classified as an impact crater based on several lines of evidence, perhaps the most compelling being the presence of maskelynite. Maskelynite is a kind of naturally occurring glass that is only formed by extremely high-velocity impacts. A Science article published in 1973 pointed out this material's presence, and suggested that the crater's situation in volcanic basalt made it a good analogue for impact craters on the surface of the Moon. Original Article on NASA's Earth Observatory Page: Lonar Crater Article Image from Nasa: