Mono Lake Limestone Reflections Postcard

This is an image of a tufa formation at South Tufa on Mono Lake on a winter day. For those unaware, these towers are formed when subterranean fresh water springs enter highly alkaline salt water lakes (AKA “soda lakes”) . This causes a reaction with calcium and carbonate salts that forms insoluble calcium carbonate (limestone). This precipitates out and, over time, settles to form large deposits around the location of the springs. On this day quite a bit of fog had formed on the lake in the cool morning air. It had already started to lift by the time I arrived near mid-day but it still made the background somewhat moody and helped to accentuate the wonderful formations. I shot this image with as long of a shutter opening as I could get away with to smooth the water out as best I could to accentuate that “mirror” look on the water. I also like the way the foreground formation sort of frames the smaller one in the distance.