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Mono Lake (/ˈmoʊnoʊ/ MOH-noh) is a large, shallow saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake. These salts also make the lake water alkaline.
This desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp that thrive in its waters, and provides critical habitat for two million annual migratory birds that feed on the shrimp and alkali flies. Historically, the native Kutzadika'a people derived nutrition from the Ephydra hians pupae, which live in the shallow waters around the edge of the lake.
When the city of Los Angeles diverted water from the freshwater streams flowing into the lake, it lowered the lake level, which imperiled the migratory birds.
South Tufa, Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve, Mono County, CA, 10/11/2010
Linhof Master Technika 2000 camera, 210mm Rodenstock Sironar-N f/5.6 lens, Fujicolor Pro 160S film, 5 exposures, 280 megapixels
Mono Lake formed more than 760,000 years ago in an eastern California basin with no outlet to the ocean. Dissolved salts make the lake very alkaline and saline. This desert lake has a productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp that grow in the water, and critical nesting habitat for two million migratory birds that feed on the shrimp. With its high concentration of arsenic, Mono Lake is also home to GFAJ-1, a rod-shaped extremophile bacterium that can incorporate arsenic into its biochemistry! In 1941 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting Mono Lake's tributary streams 350 miles south to meet the growing water demands of the city of Los Angeles. As a result, the lake shrank to half its natural volume while its surface dropped over 40 vertical feet. Thanks to the work of Stanford University graduate student David Gaines, the Mono Lake Committee, and other environmentalists Los Angeles eventually agreed to limit the amount of water it takes from the lake's sources and to partially restore the lake's size. Today the surface of Mono Lake is still much lower than it once was. As a result, alkaline sands and once-submerged tufa towers are exposed and form a unique and otherworldly landscape here. These fantastic tufa towers are a variety of limestone - calcium carbonate spires and knobs, formed by the precipitation of minerals during the interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. On this autumn day in the eastern Sierra the sky started out perfectly clear, but in the early afternoon the weather began gradually changing to storm conditions. While driving south on US 395 I spotted these beautiful cumulus clouds moving in from the west, and thought they might look nice over Mono Lake. I drove to the South Tufa area of the lake and was pleased to find this scene, complete with smooth reflective water and swimming ducks!
The battle of Britain memorial flight Lancaster seen in 2010 , a raw file I have only just processed into mono
Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve
Lee Vining, CA
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No use whatsoever without permission.
Got challenged my a friend on facebook to post a black & white photo every day for 5 days. This is one of the photos that I took. I liked it so much, that I thought it was flickr worthy.
Fascinating geology, an arid landscape, and a unique habitat have combined to create the otherworldly appearance of the Mono Lake area in California. Definitely worth a stop for anyone traveling on 395 or near Yosemite.
Sadly, Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve is one of the 70 California State parks that will close due to budget cuts. This will happen next year in July. So Linda and and I decided to go and shoot at Mono Lake over the Labor Day weekend and make sure we got shots of this awesome place.
We visited several times and, while nice, there were no clouds and the light was very “blah”. We decided to have one more attempt, on the day we had to leave, and got up at 5am. To our delight the sky was filled with clouds and the whole feel of the place was just amazing. We could not stop shooting!
So here is a shot taken at the South Tufas. It’s an HDR made from 3 shots, two stops apart.
While I am unsure how one closes a lake, it will be sad to see this state park be closed. As you can see, you can walk right up to many of these tufas and I hate to think of them being damaged by vandals. The South Tufas are up to 1000 years old so not something that will “grow back” quickly.
So, if you are a photographer or just someone who wants to see this place, go before July 2012. I can highly recommend it.
From my blog over at www.albertdebruijn.com
Mono.
2nd May 2015,
La 2 de Apolo,
Barcelona.
See more photos in the review in Flashes And Sounds.
©Rosario Lopez
DO NOT USE / REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT PERMISSION.
IF YOU WISH TO USE/LICENSE MY IMAGES IN ANY WAY; PLEASE CONTACT ME.
" Our spent time flutters and tumbles imperceptibly towards our feet where it gathers like the fallen blossoms of a pear tree. We bear this invisible umbra at all times, occasionally kicking up a discarded petal, a memory, through which we can precisely experience the ‘mono no aware’ of our lives."
From a little book of words and pictures I made a while back. You can download a free pdf at:
www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/194385
... that is, only if you want to!
Yashica Mat 124G | Fuji Neopan 400 | Rodinal (1+25)
NASA has discovered bacteria made of arsenic living in Mono Lake in California. This discovery changes our understanding of the building blocks that can be used to create life. I shot this photo at sunrise using a polarizing filter on the south side of the lake.
www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/nasa-finds-new-life/
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/02/nasa-new-life-arsenic-b...
Taken during a Photo Meet Up with the Landscape Photography group. We spent the day photographing the Tufa on the south shore of Mono Lake.
Mono Lake (/ˈmoʊnoʊ/ MOH-noh) is a large, shallow saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake. These salts also make the lake water alkaline.
This desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp that thrive in its waters, and provides critical habitat for two million annual migratory birds that feed on the shrimp and alkali flies. Historically, the native Kutzadika'a people derived nutrition from the Ephydra hians pupae, which live in the shallow waters around the edge of the lake.
When the city of Los Angeles diverted water from the freshwater streams flowing into the lake, it lowered the lake level, which imperiled the migratory birds.
Mono Cliffs Provincial Park. It's not a big park but it tells of important geology along the Bruce Trail in Ontario.
I had a very pleasant hike here in cool fall weather. No bugs, no people, just me and my thoughts (and my camera).
Taken in Mono Lake south tufas at sunrise on Oct 16th 2011.
We had an epic sunset on Friday Oct 14th, but I could just see it since I was driving on Highway 395. I am happy that I atleast see it even though I couldn't capture it's beauty. The sunset on Saturday evening wasn't all that great but we had a great sunrise on Sunday. Overall it was an excellent trip.
This saline lake has been depleted by water diversions from the Owens River to supply water for Los Angeles. Taken June 18, 2014 while flying from Washington DC to San Francisco (IAD>SFO 20140618 mono lake-1460)
My Eastern Sierra Photo Workshop is June 15th. Check it out here: californiaphotographyworkshops.com/Bodie_and_Mono_Lake.html
The Mono–Inyo Craters are a volcanic chain of craters, domes and lava flows in Mono County, Eastern California. The chain stretches 25 miles (40 km) from the northwest shore of Mono Lake to the south of Mammoth Mountain. The Mono Lake Volcanic Field forms the northernmost part of the chain and consists of two volcanic islands in the lake and one cinder cone volcano on its northwest shore. Most of the Mono Craters, which make up the bulk of the northern part of the Mono–Inyo chain, are phreatic (steam explosion) volcanoes that have since been either plugged or over-topped by rhyolite domes and lava flows. The Inyo Craters form much of the southern part of the chain and consist of phreatic explosion pits, and rhyolitic lava flows and domes. The southernmost part of the chain consists of fumaroles and explosion pits on Mammoth Mountain and a set of cinder cones south of the mountain; the latter are called the Red Cones.
Eruptions along the narrow fissure system under the chain began in the west moat of Long Valley Caldera 400,000 to 60,000 years ago. Mammoth Mountain was formed during this period. Multiple eruptions from 40,000 to 600 years ago created the Mono Craters and eruptions 5,000 to 500 years ago formed the Inyo Craters. Lava flows 5,000 years ago built the Red Cones, and explosion pits on Mammoth Mountain were excavated in the last 1,000 years. Uplift of Paoha Island in Mono Lake about 250 years ago is the most recent activity. These eruptions most likely originated from small magma bodies rather than from a single, large magma chamber like the one that produced the massive Long Valley Caldera eruption 760,000 years ago. During the past 3,000 years, eruptions have occurred every 250 to 700 years. In 1980, a series of earthquakes and uplift within and south of Long Valley Caldera indicated renewed activity in the area.
The region has been used by humans for centuries. Obsidian was collected by Mono Paiutes for making sharp tools and arrow points. Glassy rock continues to be removed in modern times for use as commercial scour and yard decoration. Mono Mills processed timber felled on or near the volcanoes for the nearby boomtown Bodie in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Water diversions into the Los Angeles Aqueduct system from their natural outlets in Mono Lake started in 1941 after a water tunnel was cut under the Mono Craters. Mono Lake Volcanic Field and a large part of the Mono Craters gained some protection under Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area in 1984. Resource use along all of the chain is managed by the United States Forest Service as part of Inyo National Forest. Various activities are possible along the chain, including hiking, bird watching, canoeing, skiing, and mountain biking.
Source: Wikipedia
Another from a nice evening at Mono Lake last week....I was drawn to the reflections on this calm night. The brightness (.9 GND) in the sky created enough of light in the reflections to give fill light to the shadow side of the Tufa's and the plant remnants in the foreground. According to the Mono Lake newsletter the lake level has risen 1.2 feet just since April of this year.....
As usual, best on Black
Mono Lake is an alkaline and hypersaline lake in California, United States that is a critical nesting habitat for several bird species and is one of the most productive ecosystems in North America.
Geology
Mono Craters are rhyolitic domes. The dark colored Negit Island is of volcanic origin and is somewhat less than 2000 years old. Paoha Island is the larger and lighter colored island in the lake and was formed 300 years ago from uplift caused by magma movement. Black Point is the remnant of a cinder cone volcano that erupted under water in prehistoric times, when Mono Lake was much larger (and referred to as Lake Russell).
Ecology
In order to provide water for growing Los Angeles, water was diverted from the Owens River and then from the tributaries that fed Mono Lake (see California Water Wars). In 1941 the city of Los Angeles extended an aqueduct system into the Mono Basin, diverting water that would otherwise have entered Mono Lake.
Enough water was diverted that evaporation soon exceeded inflow and the lake level fell rapidly, exposing alkaline sands and once-submerged tufa towers, and turning Negit Island into a peninsula, exposing the nests of gulls to coyotes and forcing them to abandon the island.
In 1976 University of California, Davis graduate student David Gaines earned his master's degree studying the Mono Lake ecosystem and was instrumental in alerting the public of the effects of the lower water level. Gaines formed the Mono Lake Committee in 1978 and joined up with the Audubon Society to fight a now famous court battle to protect Mono Lake through state public trust laws. Despite these efforts, the lake is still lower than historic levels and exposed shorelines are a source of significant alkali dust during periods of high winds.
Owens Lake, which sustained a similar ecosystem, completely dried up because of water diversions. Mono Lake was spared the same fate on September 28, 1994, when the California State Water Resources Control Board issued an order to protect Mono Lake and its tributary streams. Since that time the lake level has steadily risen; in 1941 the lake level was at 6417 feet above sea level and as of 2004 it was at 6381 feet (1945 m). The goal is to have lake level rise to 6392 feet above sea level, a goal made more difficult by drought in the American West.
The lake contains approximately 280 million tons of dissolved salts, with the salinity varying on the amount of water in the lake at any given time. Before 1941, the salinity was approximately 50 grams per liter (g/l) (compared to a value of 31.5 g/l for the world's oceans). In 1982, when the lake reached its lowest level, the salinity had nearly doubled to 99 g/l. In 2002 it was measured at 78 g/l and is expected to stablize at an average 69 g/l as the lake replenishes over the next 20 years.
The hypersalinity and high alkalinity (pH=10 or equivalent to 2.5 grams of NaOH per liter of water[2]) of the lake, means that no fish are native to the lake. An attempt by the California Department of Fish and Game to stock the lake failed. The lake is famous for the Mono Lake brine shrimp, Artemia monica, a tiny species of brine shrimp, no bigger than a thumbnail, that are found nowhere else on earth. During the warmer summer months, an estimated 4-6 trillion brine shrimp inhabit the lake. The species has no food value for humans, but is a staple for birds of the region. Also an important food source, alkali flies ("Ephydra hians") live along the shores of the lake and walk underwater encased in small air bubbles to graze and to lay eggs. The whole food chain of the lake is based on the high population of single-celled algae present in the warm shallow waters.
Mono Lake is a vital resting and eating stop for migratory shorebirds and has been recognized as an International Reserve in the Western Hemisphere Reserve Network. Nearly 2,000,000 waterbirds, including 35 species of shorebirds, use Mono Lake to rest and eat for at least part of the year. Some shorebirds that depend on the resources of Mono Lake include American avocets, Killdeers, and sandpipers. Over 1.5 million eared grebes and phalaropes use Mono Lake during their long migrations.
Late every summer tens of thousands of Wilson's phalaropes and red-necked phalaropes arrive from their nesting grounds, and feed until they continue their migration to South America or the tropical oceans respectively.
In addition to migratory birds, a few species spend several months to nest at Mono Lake. Over 85% of the state population of California gulls nest at Mono Lake each year. After abandoning the landbridged Negit Island in the late 70s, California gulls have moved to some nearby islets and have established new, if less protected nesting sites. Cornell University and Point Reyes Bird Observatory have continued the study of nesting populations on Mono Lake that was begun over 20 years ago. Snowy Plovers also arrive at Mono Lake each spring to nest along the remote eastern shores.
In Mark Twain's Roughing It (1872), chapter 38 and chapter 39 provide a humorous but informative early description of Mono Lake in its natural condition in the 1860's.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia