Mono Lake's Impressive Tufa Towers and Their Story near the Sierra Nevada Range, California
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- Investigate the ethereal and impressive tufa towers along the shore of Mono Lake with geology professor Shawn Willsey to learn how these features form along with the story of large, ancient Lake Russell. GPS location: 37.94339, -119.02741
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Shawn Willsey
College of Southern Idaho
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Twin Falls, ID 83303
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you guys have such wonderful geology and scenery over there in the U.S
You need to visit Dinosaur Quarry in Vernal, Utah sometime.
What a gorgeous lake, its almost alien to look at the tufa towers covered in golden plants and emerging from glassy water. Its almost like fantasy
Thanks, Shawn. Glad they were able to stabilize water use and preserve the lake and its features.
History is a bit more interesting. This was essentially the second Los Angeles water wars. LA bought the rights to the feeder streams into Mono.
Unlike Owens Lake where the farmers used dynamite to blow up the aqueduct, a guy named David Gaines found out it was more efficient to find sympathetic judges and forced Los Angeles to return water to Mono Lake. If not for that, Mono Lake would probably have suffered the same fate as Owens.
Same tactics had been used since, so I imagine Mono Lake could have been the start of the modern environmentalist movement...
There is, was when I was there, a sign saying something to the effect,....How generous LA is for sharing it's water with Mono Lake. Rather than the other way around.
I drive by those all the time in my work and I always make a point of stopping and appreciating the beauty. Now I understand it a little more. Thank you.
Very interesting. The field trips are so enjoyable and well presented. Thank you.
It was amaIng when I visited it in the late 70s. We stayed on small trail to avoid any damage. It is a site to behold and now I know how it was created. Thank you!
The High Plains Drifter starring Clint Estwood wad filmed there in 1973. ANOTHER excellent video!!
Thx for another excellent geo-ed adventure. ✌🏻
❤❤ Much enjoyed and appreciated!! Tufa towers reminded me of melted crayons in potpie tins we plunged into a bucket of cold water....instant Flash Gordon landscapes. Sorry....so primary. I love your tutorials! Learning much and viewing places I will never visit. So more beautiful than pictures in a book!! Thank you greatly!
All the years I lived in Mammoth Lakes, all the times I've visited through here, and I've never stopped to go down to the Mono Lake shoreline to look at these tufa towers. Spectacular both in structure and how they came to be. Mono is one of, if not THE, oldest lakes on the continent. Considering there's no natural outlet, plus LADWP's insatiable thirst for water (enough to dry up Owens Valley), it's a wonder Mono Lake has survived this long -- but now, having seen the extent of Lake Russell, it kinda makes sense. I knew there were some massive lakes in the Basin & Range, but I didn't know Russell was THAT big.
I've spoken to people who remembered when the Owens Valley was lush all the way up. There are still a few isolated patches along the highway of how it used to be.
I knew Mono used to be bigger, but yeah, had no idea it was once a massive glacier-fed lake!
[I used to live down near Lancaster]
The Basin&Range describes a type of crustal-extension (stretching) where (mostly) NtoS-running blocks of crust tilted and form mostly-parallel ridges and valleys. Mono Lake sits in the Great Basin, which overlaps much of the B&R area, but which describes the lack of egress to the oceans of any stream and lakes, not really related to B&R faulting-
Mulholland dryed up Owen's lake. I've seen pictures of ferrys on the lake.
Spectacular again! I think your hypothesis is also spot on.
I was interested in this place ever since I saw the picture on the Wish You Were Here album. They used to let you camp just a short walk away and I loved to walk over in the evening.
Thank you professor Willsey for taking us along to such interesting places.
That most will not have a chance of visiting. And explaining the formations.
Thank you, Shawn.
Thank you for your videos!
Glad you like them! Thanks for you kind donation to help me make more.
Hope you discovered the "Whoa Nelly Deli" at the gas station where the Lee Vining road meets 395. Surprisingly good food in the middle of nowhere. One of our favorite stops on our many trips from San Diego up/down Owens Valley, though we escaped from California and now live in North Idaho. Good video.
Good tip. I’ll have to try that next time. We ate at Nicely’s in Lee Vining.
I've added that gas station Nellie- Deli to my routine now its has grassy picnic tables etc and great food bkfst/lunch/dnr at the bottom of hwy120 Tioga Pass road just before the 395 intersection.
I was at a meeting, say 1995ish, in Mammoth Mountain resort. It was in June and I snowshoed around the area. Well, during that week, the lake was being consecrated as the water had stopped going to LA. So I went to the 'ceremony'. They had, say 12 Buddhist monks in saffron and carmine colored robes, They were humming and had incense as I remember. I was pretty cool, cool and weird simultaneously, with the colorful monks against the very colored tufa towers.
Mono lake is indeed a bizarre and intriguing landscape, but not as bizarre as the motel we stayed at in Lee Vining - still in the top three of the worst motels we’ve stayed at in five decades of budget-conscious travel. (The other two are in Key Largo and Big Sur.) great video, Shawn.👍
Hahaha..could compete with the creepy motel story, my family stopped at in 1961 on rt66, or the creepy Indian hotel story in Fiji.!!
Great video. Hope you went to buckeye hot springs while visiting. It is such a great place to relax and enjoy geothermal water.
Thats fascinating. When you find out about the area you find its a little geological wonder. I didnt know before.
I've driven past there numerous times (the highway just north, over to Hawthorn NV, is one of my favorites -- over that way, Walker Lake is neat too) but never had time to stop and go down to the water. So it was very nice to see it close up.
I visited there about 12 years ago & the water level continues to drop is what we saw. The levels are marked by year in places along the trail we took. It truly is a spectacular place. I remember swallows had built nests on the tufa. I also remember a lot of flies hanging around the shoreline close to the water. Birds walked along with beaks open scooping them up. Lol
Lot of history at Mono Lake geology wise, and the fight for water to L.A. The towers are a winner thank you stay safe all
I think it would be cool to make mention of what values indigenous peoples placed on some of these cool places. Surely some geological oddities we take for granted were once very special places for First Nations and we should acknowledge that.
ahh... my first geology field trip was to Mono Lake.... back in 1974.... we got stranded on Paoha Island, too!
Mono Lake was also, at one time, the site of a town called Lago. it was in the movie HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER staring Clint Eastwood.
Great views and great explanations. Your videos appear to contain accurate information with your current geological interpretations based on studies and observations. I would like see a video with you and Nick Zenter from CWU sometime. Nick tends to go on tangents and will fixate on specific topics of debate which is a slighty different from most of your videos, but you guys remind me of each other.
Thank you, Shawn!
P.S. I would like you to do more videos of the owhyees near Graveyard Point, Succor Creek and Leslie Gulch. Just curious on what your take would be. I am a rockhound, so semi precious stones and how they are created was my original reason for following you and Nick Zenter.
Great comment and thanks for watching. Leslie Gulch is on my list.
BTW Shawn I hope you make it down to Owens Lake to see it after the epic winter they had there. It's an actual _lake!_ I've never known it as anything other than a dusty playa, and now that bad boy is a full-on lake, like it was before LADWP sucked up all the water there.
I dropped by mono lake to see the tufas and just as I got there the partial eclipse started and it was spectacular.
Thank you Professor for the explanation. Where did the massive obsidian boulders come from?
There is a whole chain of volcanoes just south of the lake, Mono-Inyo craters, several of which contain obsidian. Look for future videos that focus on these.
Very interesting. Are the Trona Pinnacles tufa towers? They are similar in texture but on a larger scale.
Thank you for all your videos always looking forward to watching them.
Yes they are. Fossil springs from beneath ancient Lake Searles.
What an interesting place. In the past I thought Mono Lake had a completely different kind of story. Thanks for this video that straightened out my perception. Now I think of it as calcuim carbonate gone wild. I didn't realize there are so many salty lakes in the southwest. But that does make sense. I remember as a youg adult how Southern California was trying to steal the water resources in all of the American west. There was a huge many years battle when they were trying to get control of PNW water and devert the Columbia River down to LA. But we need that water ourselves here in the Northwest. Large parts of Eastern Washington and Oregon depend on irrigation projects to support agriculture and towns depend on the Columbia for their livelihood. Few realize just how much desert there is in the entire West. I've learned through your videos just how amazing the geology of the west is. Thank you.
Apparently the towers were formed under water and we see them now only because the lake level dropped. Does that mean the towers are thousands of years old?
Very likely, yes.
Very interesting. My first foray to this part of our country. I have always enjoyed collecting rocks from different places. The history of this geology interesting to learn about. I've not been past Iowa in my 67 years. Do you know why the name changed from Russell to Mono?
Sorry, Prof. Willsey, YT insists now that we either watch their own commercial content or buy a monthly YT subscription. I watch creators' commercial content, that's enough. And I've already reached my limit of paid media subscriptions. Thanks for all the truly good content. I'll greatly miss it.
I was not aware of any changes with YT ads. Sorry to hear you won't be part of the crew here.
Hi Shawn.... I've visited Mono Lake several times in the past, making sure to spend time at the Tuffa formations along the south shore. For me the volcanic sites along (and adjacent ) to Hwy 395, alway spark my interest (i.e. - Obsidian Dome).
Not sure if you've visited Fossil Falls, near Little Lake and Red Hill? If not, might want to add it to your list of places to visit. Interesting volcanic landscape too boot. To think that the ancient Owens River once flowed here, is almost mind blowing, considering the width of the falls (flowing on to the China Lake basin).
I've enjoyed watching your geology content. I'm new to your channel.
Cheers......
Awesome. Welcome aboard and thanks for the tip. Enjoy the existing videos. More eastern Sierra ones coming soon.
Well done!
“Fairyland of towers” is exactly how I felt when I was there!
Great educational material, with the towers could it be possible that they pushed their way up through a silt layers when the lake level was much higher, then as the lake level dropped the softer silt layers surrounding them eroded away.
Wild!
Thanks!
Fascinating
Awesome, been waiting for you to take a trip to the lake.
So interesting. I knew the earlier lake was large but not to the extent of lake Russell.
An interesting story about Mono Lake concerns its high arsenic content. Arsenic is chemically similar to phosphorus. A NASA-funded study claimed that bacteria in the lake were substituting arsenic for phosphorus in its DNA. The study was widely criticized and ended up being an embarrassment to NASA.
But not much of one, because they have troves of wild successes to offset that weak study-
Object to salinity description 6:15
It's not about losing more than it's gaining, lake could be static with same results, nor direct precip but instead feeder creeks and springs with traces of salts like all 'fresh water' but *no outlet,* so that evaporation is the only way out thus continuously concentrating trace salts.
(I know YOU know but it wasn't described properly)
Very strange environment to swim and SCUBA dive in. Taking considerably more lead to sink my ass, this is very interesting underwater experience. In the greater depths the tufa towers are still in process. It is as much a fairyland underwater. It took considerable effort afterwards to thoroughly clean my SCUBA gear (several days of rinse and repeat soaking in a 50gal barrel). Salt and Sea Monkies! Swimming afterwards the salt and material from the lake makes for strange hairdoos and stiff swimsuits! There is no nearby place to wash off, so bring your own fresh water to rinse.
Interesting place to see but unpleasant. When I was there a decade ago, the air was filled with little gnats. The lake is dead with alkali flies living on it's corps. Keep exploring, your videos are entertaining.
A famous food of the natives who gathered the pupae in fine baskets I believe a seasonal source of protein for their diet. Mentioned I think in Mark Twain's travels..I might be wrong about the writer but it is well documented. A visit to the museum there helps.
i wonder if the force of the springs could make a difference... maybe the mixture the springs have in them...
Hey shawn question. Are the tufa towers and ancient (and extant) hydrothermal/groundwater systems in Mono Lake connected to the greater mono craters volcanic system? Sorry if this is a stupid question.
Good question. The groundwater system generally lies well above the magmatic system. However, faults and fractures can serve as pathways for water to get heated at depth and rise toward surface.
(This was my last chance to meet up with you, and it just wasn't gonna happen. I've been in and out of dr's offices for the past four months and it pretty much blew up my summer. More on the way, so this area will all be covered in snow by the time I can make my way down there.)
Hopefully next time....
"...no preferred pathway..."
Does that mean there is not a centric duct/conduit/cavity within the towers, or even beneath them? Their internals would then resemble sponge-like material?
sweet
I believe it's also one of the longest continuously existing lake in North America, at over a million years old.
And where were all the Alkali flies, lol?
No flies on my visit. Perfect conditions.
Have you been east of ridgecrest the place called the pinnacles is there in california
No. Not yet.
Not just due to evaporation but also due to LA Water and Power shipping much of the run off to LA to slake the city's thirst.
Is there any aquatic life in Mono Lake?
Brine shrimp.
The water level of Mono Lake has gone down to syphening by too many. Walker Lake in Nevada has had the same problem.
Any thing living in the lake? Does it ever get toxic to wildlife?
Algae, alkali flies and brine shrimp. Migratory birds visit and fuel up on the shrimp
It's loaded with all sorts of stuff. 500 ppm boron, for example.
thanks @@professorsogol5824
thanks paul @@pauldietz1325
One of the most important birding areas in the USA. Full of life
Heavy corrosion after forming...
😅Save Mono Lake association is still going strong as LA is responsible for diverting inflows to Mono and threatening sea gull breeding island to be accessible to predation by coyotes etc.
I fabricated a bumper sticker from a couple of "Save Mono Lake" stickers that read, " Save Mono Lake, nuke L.A." I got mostly positive feedback. 😅😅😅😅
The most bitter water I've ever tasted there. Dad contributed to beating LADWP in court victory to save that lake, they were going to turn it into another Owens Lake, dry dead and dusty.
Mono........
Not mona
Sorry to nitpick, but details are important.
I was there exactly one year ago and got some very nice photos. There's quite a bit more water there now, but still it's MUCH lower than in the past.
My sunrise stop when I go to Tahoe 🥹
You failed to mention the two historically-recent volcanic cinder cones that are in the middle and edge of the lake. Of course, they aren’t as interesting as the tufa. 😃
Look for a future video on one of the volcanoes, Black Point.
Thanks!
Thank you! Much appreciated.