Mono Lake Tufa Formations

Mono Lake is a land locked lake just east of Yosemite National Park.
It has a saline content over three times that of the Pacific Ocean.
Because of the high saline and other mineral content, formations called tufa (pronounced toofah)
grow near the edges of the lake.

The tufa structures are formed when fresh water springs, containing calcium, bubble up
through the carbonate rich lake water.

The combining of the calcium rich spring water with the lake water forms calcium carbonate,
a whitish limestone deposit.

This large tufa structure is like a cave and has been used as a shelter by past peoples.

We drove down a dirt and gravel road alongside the lake, forded a stream and found an isolated
area where there were a lot of tufas to observe. The truck sustained a lot of scratches.

Yoshiko is sketching some of the formations.

The formations look like mysterious cities out in the lake.

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