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Lake Crowley columns (interior)[1]

Lake Crowley is a reservoir near Mammoth Lakes, California, the dam completed in 1941.  It was named after Father John J. Crowley, a Catholic priest to the Owens Valley area.  Perhaps the most unique attraction to the lake are these impressive stone columns found along the east side of the reservoir.  From Wikipedia:

 

Upon completion of the reservoir in 1941, strange columnar formations, some of which reached heights of 20 ft (6.1 m), were spotted along the reservoir's eastern shore. Some described them as stone cylinders connected by fortified stone arches that had been completely covered and obscured for millions of years but which had been gradually unmasked by the incessant pummeling of the lake's powerful waves, whose constant pounding had eroded the more malleable rock at the base of the cliffs encasing these pillars.

 

The pillars were simply regarded as oddities until 2015 when geologists realized that they were the result of frigid water from melting snow seeping down into volcanic ash (the result of a catastrophic eruption more than 760,000 years prior), creating tiny holes in the hot ash, the byproduct being boiling water and steam, which then rose up and out of these same holes. Samples of the resulting "evenly spaced convection cells similar to heat pipes" (a quote from a study at UC Berkeley) were analyzed using X-rays and electron microscopes. Researchers found that minute crevices in these "convection pipes" were bonded in place by minerals that were able to resist the erosion of the lake's waves. Researchers have counted nearly 5,000 of these pillars, which appear in groups and vary widely in shape, size, and color over an area of 4,000 acres (16 km2), with some of the columns standing as erect as towering pylons and sporting ringed apertures approximately a foot apart. Others are warped or leaning at various angles, and others are half-submerged and, some say, resemble the petrified remains of dinosaur vertebrae.

 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowley_Lake

Copyright: William L
Type: Spherical
Resolution: 12804x6402
Taken: 24/04/2022
Uploaded: 06/05/2022
Published: 06/05/2022
Views:

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Tags: crowley lake; reservoir; california; sierra nevada; snow; water; stone columns; long valley caldera; ash; volcanic; arches; natural
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