Mono Lake: From Hippie Bumper Sticker to NASA Superstar

(Dec. 2) -- "Save Mono Lake!" It's a bumper sticker that has long been a fixture on VW buses across the state of California for decades. Now, with NASA's announcement of the discovery of bacteria that thrive on poisonous arsenic, Mono Lake is back in the national spotlight.

Located in Mono County, Calif., 13 miles east of Yosemite National Park, Mono Lake's history is of interest to tourists, conservationists and, now astrobiologists. Surge Desk has a primer on Mono Lake's story to date.

Formation of Mono Lake
Located more than 6,000 feet above sea level, geologists believe Mono Lake formed at least 760,000 years ago, when a volcanic eruption in California's Long Valley that was 2,500 times more powerful than the 1980 blast at Mount St. Helens, The Mono Lake Committee said on its website. While a smaller freshwater lake may have existed before the eruption, the reshaping of the basin may have provided the modern shape of today's lake.

1941
During the last ice age, the lake reached a depth estimated at 900 feet. While that level represented the peak depth, the most notable changes in Mono Lake's size came in 1941, when the city of Los Angeles diverted several of the lake's tributaries to provide humans with a much-needed water source. The lake's average depth today is just 57 feet.

The lake's odd geologic formations
Exposed when the waters of Mono Lake began to fall, enormous limestone structures called tufa were exposed. These odd, almost alien-looking towers form near the mouths of springs as calcium meets carbonate.

1978
Appalled by the state of the rapidly disappearing lake, David Gaines formed the Mono Lake Committee to raise awareness and try to protect the ecosystem.

Current chemistry
With the main tributaries carrying relatively little fresh water into the lake, the level of salinity at Mono Lake has risen to a level of 8.1 percent, with a pH of 9.8.

2010
NASA gives Mono Lake renewed attention, announcing that new life forms have been discovered on the lake's muddy banks.

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