Existing comment:
Changing Lake Levels:
Look toward the western mountains -- do you see faint terraces on the pine-covered slopes? These terraces are ancient Ice Age shorelines formed when Mono Lake was much deeper than today. Since that time, natural climactic changes have caused the lake to drop slowly. However, between 1941 and the early 1990s, the lake level declined rapidly due to human-caused water diversions from the streams that feed the lake. This most recent drop in lake level can be seen as a wide band of dusty white alkali encircling the lake. |