The
Mono Craters are the youngest mountain range in North America.
They rise to 2,400 feet above the surrounding Mono Basin,
just south
of Mono Lake and east of the junction of Hwy 395 and Hwy 120. They
first erupted about 100,000 years ago. The Mono Craters are not
really craters. They consist of 30 or more overlapping rhyolite domes
and explosion pits. You'll see large quantities of pumice and obsidian
in the area. Local Indians used the obsidian to fashion arrowheads
and cutting tools. When the L.A. DWP drilled an 11.5 mile aqueduct
tunnel
through
the
Mono Craters in the 1930’s,
work crews encountered hot and cold groundwater, deadly carbon dioxide
gas, and steam proving that there is still activity within the Mono
Craters. Nobody knows when the next eruption will be, but geologic
changes occur
extremely slowly when compared to the human lifetime. The Mono Craters
are not dead. They remain dormant and will almost certainly erupt
again in the future. |
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