These tufa towers were created over hundreds of years of accumulation of minerals around the entrance of a spring into the lake. A chemical reaction takes place that causes the minerals to solidify once they come into contact with the extreme alkaline salt lake.
The interesting spires grow under water until they reach the surface. Mono Lake has no outlet other than evaporation and now man made diversion of some of the tributaries to the lake have lowered the water level leaving some of the tufa towers high and dry. It is possible to see some of these rock formations high up on the shore.
This picture shows a cluster of tufa towers and their reflections on the lake surface under a blue sky.
Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve SNR, California, USA
I photographed this photo with the digital SLR camera model Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, aperture of f/11.0, exposure time of 1/60 sec. on ISO 100, as always I used a original Canon Lens, the focus lenght for this picture was 78mm.
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