Mono Lake, California

Introduction

Mono Lake sits on the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada in California, one of North America's oldest lakes, formed 760,000 years ago, with salinity about 2.5 times that of seawater and strong alkalinity. This strange hypersaline alkaline lake is famed for the tufa towers rising along its shores, bizarre limestone columns formed when freshwater springs enter the hypersaline lake and precipitate, each shaped like alien architecture, a pilgrimage site for photographers and geologists. The lake has no fish but nourishes billions of brine shrimp and alkali flies, a key stop on the Pacific migratory bird flyway where millions of phalaropes, cormorants, and gulls rest each year. Due to Los Angeles water diversion, the lake level dropped drastically; after decades of environmental litigation and restoration, it is now slowly recovering, a milestone of the American ecological restoration movement.

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