East of Yosemite, Mono Lake presents one of the weirder landscapes in California. Apparently, the deal is this: the lake is extremely saline; there are mineral springs on the lake bed; and when the calcium-rich spring water hits the salty Mono Lake water, the calcium precipitates out--creating these odd formations. All of these, of course, were below the surface of the lake at one time. Under a court order that settled a very long and contentious struggle between conservationists and L.A. Water & Power, most of them will eventually be below the lake surface again.
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2 comments:
Great shots, and funny coincidence: I was just there on Friday! In fact, Mrs. G was just now showing me a figure from a book she's currently reading about Mono Lake, showing what it looked like during the Ice Age. Apparently the lake was much bigger then, pretty much all frozen over, and at one time contained icebergs. Scientists now refer to that bigger lake as Lake Russell.
Thanks!
I had a feeling you were probably on the East Side somewhere. I love that they have the various shorelines (past and future) marked along the way to the tufa beach.
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