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Mono Lake is a huge glacier-carved lake with no outlet. For thousands of years, streams have carried minerals into the lake while evaporation has removed water from it. As a result of this process, the salt content of the lake is almost 10%. No fish can live in these alkaline waters, but brine shrimp, alkali flies, and birds are abundant. In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting Mono Lake's tributary streams to the L.A. aqueduct. This resulted in a lowering of the lake level, revealing the fascinating tufa towers. The strange towers are formed when the fresh water springs containing calcium bubble up through the carbonate-rich lake water, forming limestone deposits som
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In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting Mono Lake's tributary streams to the L.A. aqueduct. This resulted in a lowering of the lake level, revealing the fascinating tufa towers. The strange towers are formed when the fresh water springs containing calcium bubble up through the carbonate-rich lake water, forming limestone deposits somewhat similar to stalactites and stalagmites in caves. The negative is that the lowered lake levels left alkaline deposits on the perimeter of the former lake, and the wind picks up these fine deposits creating toxic air! After this revelation, we were glad we hadn't decided to camp here! The good news is that, in 1994, the L.A. water diversion was reversed, stream runoff is returning to Mono Lake, and the water level is returning to normal. Below is a photo of Mono Lake and a few of the tufa towers.
Three sides of Mono Lake are surrounded by volcanic formations. We spent a couple of hours climbing up and stumbling over rocks in Panum Crater, which erupted only 640 years ago. We found the pumice and obsidian rock formations totally fascinating.
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