Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park, by Allen F. Glazner and Greg M. Stock, Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California, by David D. Alt and Donald Hyndman, Geology of the Sierra Nevada, by Mary Hill, Geologic map of the Long Valley Caldera, Mono-Inyo Craters volcanic chain, and vicinity, eastern California, by Roy Bailey, Quaternary history of the Mono Valley, California, by Israel Russell. The bathymetry of Mono Lake also shows that there are four or five features near Paoha Island that may be a small cluster of underwater vents. The pumice that blankets the southern part of the Mono Basin, including the June Lake area, originated from the Mono-Inyo chain.

Mono Lake, California, is home to the bizarre and hairy alkali fly (Ephydra hians).

“Mono Lake is famous for being a limited ecosystem in terms of animals . Nearly all of the eruptions from the Mono-Inyo volcanic chain had some explosive activity that ejected pumice and ash. Since 1941, four of the five rivers, flowing in the Mono Lake, were diverted into the water supply system of the city.

Evaporation of the lake water left behind a saltier and saltier lake.

The study raises a broader question for Stewart: what defines an extremophile? victorvosper8 victorvosper8 Answer: The water of Mono Lake is strongly alkaline, it has a pH value of 10. 6H2O: Cold comfort for glendonites as paleothermometers. Kim, S.T., O'Neil, J.R., 1997. Mono Lake, California, is home to the bizarre and hairy alkali fly (Ephydra hians). The Mono Basin lies at the complex transition area between two major geologic regions: the North American Western Cordillera (which includes the North American Plate boundary and Sierra Nevada) and the Basin and Range physiographic province.

ABOVE: Pei-Yin Shih, Elizabeth Goetz, and Ryoji Shinya on a nematode collecting trip to Mono Lake JAMES LEE. The Huffington Post.

An extended court fight has since reduced the amount of water taken from the basin and the lake is slowly recovering.

There is also a shorter trail that climbs to the top of the plug dome, which offers spectacular vistas of the Sierra Nevada and the entire Mono Basin. We’re used to seeing flies all the time, probably throwing up on your plate of food or hovering around a garbage can, but how often do we see flies do something awe-inspiring like breathe underwater? It is a terminal lake, meaning it has no outlet. Mono Lake, the oldest lake in North America, is naturally hypersaline and alkaline. In addition, the City of Los Angeles- over 300 miles away- began diverting water from the Mono Basin in 1941, cutting the lake volume in half. The motion gets distributed around the Sierra Nevada and pulls a big chunk of western North America along with it, creating a wide zone of extension called the Basin and Range Province.

So is an extremophile “something that can only live in a very extreme environment or something that can live in extreme environments but isn’t necessarily always found there? This extension began approximately 20 million years ago in northern Mexico, traveled northward, and continues today. “Because of these tiny adaptations, the alkali flies are able to occupy a niche that very few other animals can tolerate,” says van Breugel. Add your answer and earn points. These limestone towers consist primarily of calcium carbonate minerals such as calcite (CaCO3). Peng, T.-H. and Broecker, W. (1980). The high levels of salt in the lake also make it a harsh habitat for many animals, except for the brine shrimp and blackflies that call it home – and the millions of migratory birds that visit to feed on them. Long Valley Caldera is unlikely to produce more eruptions; the subsurface heat and hydrothermal system that feeds Hot Creek Geologic Site, for example, is probably the tailing end of the volcano’s activity. For the most part, Caltech’s Paul Sternberg and his group focus on nematode genomes and how those influence the animals’ development, behavior, and physiology. As the climate got warmer and drier, the lake level fell and since about 80,000 years ago water no longer reached the outlet, resulting in a closed basin. One open question, he says, is whether or not “this change in amino acid metabolism is conferring some other advantage to this particular nematode species that’s completely unrelated to arsenic.”. At those times, ice would have completely filled the canyons and spilled out into the Mono Basin. Box 29 Lee Vining, CA 93541 (760) 647-6595 [email protected]. Panum is a classic example of the rhyolitic eruptions that characterize the Mono-Inyo chain. “You can start to see them actually crawling underwater in little air bubbles,” he says.

Contact persons: Frances Spivy-Weber, Geoff McQuilkin, Bank Account of the Global Nature Fund (GNF), IBAN: DE 53 4306 0967 8040 4160 00, BIC: GENODEM1GLS, Sustainable Development & Development Cooperation.

Mono Lake alkaline concentration is caused by carbonate and bicarbonate ions like most alkaline lakes. Learn more about tufa at Mono Lake. Worldwide, no lake contains a higher level of alkalinity and supports an insect population (MBEIR, 1993).

The mutation in dbt-1 is likely not the only thing contributing to arsenic resistance, however, because the Auanema species survive better in arsenic than any strain of C. elegans. We use cookies to make this website user friendly, but we need your consent. km, depending on the water level; its average depth is 43 m. As the Mono Lake has no outlet to the ocean, dissolved salts remain in the lake and raise the water’s pH levels and salt concentration.

The best-known features of Mono Lake are its dramatic tufa (TOO-fuh) towers. And as unbelievable as it is, the alkali fly pupae, which live in the shallow waters around the edge of the lake, were a significant source of food for the native people of the Mono Basin, who called themselves Kutzadika'a: fly eaters. Its surface ranges between 150 and 190 sq.

There are two other major volcanic systems in the region—Long Valley Caldera and the Mammoth Mountain volcanic field—but each of these volcanic fields appears to be a separate system, with geochemical characteristics distinct from the others.

Retrieved January 12, 2014.