Editing Mono Lake (section)

===Tufa morphology===
[[File:Thinolite sketches.png|thumb|upright=0.8|These are original sketches of thinolite made by Edward S. Dana from his book from 1884: ''Crystallographic Study of the Thinolite of Lake Lahontan''.<ref name=":82">{{cite book|last=Dana|first=ES|year=1884|title=A crystallographic study of the thinolite of Lake Lahontan|number=12|publisher=Government Printing Office}}</ref>]]
Description of the Mono Lake tufa dates back to the 1880s, when [[Edward Salisbury Dana|Edward S. Dana]] and [[Israel Russell|Israel C. Russell]] made the first systematic descriptions of the Mono Lake tufa.<ref name=Russell1889>{{cite book|last=Russell|first=IC|year=1889|chapter=Quaternary history of Mono Valley, California|title=U. S. Geol. Survey 8th Ann. Rept. for 1886-1887|pages=261–394}}</ref><ref name=":82"/> The tufa occurs as "modern" tufa towers. There are tufa sections from old shorelines, when the lake levels were higher. These pioneering works in tufa morphology are referred to by researchers and were confirmed by James R. Dunn in 1953. The tufa types can roughly be divided into three main categories based on morphology:<ref name=":72"/><ref name=Russell1883>{{cite book|last=Russell|first=IC|year=1883|chapter=Sketch of the geological history of Lake Lahontan|title=U. S. Geol. Survey 3rd Ann. Rept. for 1881-1882|pages=189–235}}</ref>

*Lithoid tufa - massive and porous with a rock-like appearance
*Dendritic tufa - branching structures that look similar to small shrubs
*Thinolitic tufa - large well-formed crystals of several centimeters

Through time, many hypotheses were developed regarding the formation of the large [[thinolite]] crystals (also referred to as [[glendonite]]) in thinolitic tufa. It was relatively clear that the thinolites represented a calcite [[pseudomorph]] after some unknown original [[crystal]].<ref name=":82"/> The original crystal was only determined when the mineral [[ikaite]] was discovered in 1963.<ref name=Pauly1963>{{cite journal|last=Pauly|first=H|year=1963|title="Ikaite", a New Mineral from Greenland|journal=Arctic|volume=16|issue=4|pages=263–264|doi=10.14430/arctic3545|doi-access=free}}</ref> Ikaite, or hexahydrated CaCO<sub>3</sub>, is [[Metastability|metastable]] and only crystallizes at near-freezing temperatures. It is also believed that calcite crystallization inhibitors such as [[phosphate]], [[magnesium]], and [[organic carbon]] may aid in the stabilization of ikaite.<ref name=Council1993>{{cite journal|last1=Council|first1=TC|last2=Bennett|first2=PC|year=1993|title=Geochemistry of ikaite formation at Mono Lake, California: Implications for the origin of tufa mounds|journal=Geology|volume=21|issue=11|pages=971–974|doi=10.1130/0091-7613(1993)021<0971:GOIFAM>2.3.CO;2 |bibcode=1993Geo....21..971C }}</ref> When heated, ikaite breaks down and becomes replaced by smaller crystals of calcite.<ref name=Shearman1989>{{cite journal|last1=Shearman|first1=DJ|last2=McGugan|first2=A|last3=Stein|first3=C|last4=Smith|first4=AJ|year=1989|title=Ikaite, CaCO3̇6H2O, precursor of the thinolites in the Quaternary tufas and tufa mounds of the Lahontan and Mono Lake Basins, western United States|journal=Geological Society of America Bulletin|volume=101|issue=7|pages=913–917|doi=10.1130/0016-7606(1989)101<0913:ICOPOT>2.3.CO;2 |bibcode=1989GSAB..101..913S }}</ref><ref name=Swainson2001>{{cite journal|last1=Swainson|first1=IP|last2=Hammond|first2=RP|year=2001|title=Ikaite, CaCO3· 6H2O: Cold comfort for glendonites as paleothermometers|journal=American Mineralogist|volume=86|issue=11–12|pages=1530–1533|doi=10.2138/am-2001-11-1223 |bibcode=2001AmMin..86.1530S |s2cid=101559852 }}</ref> In the Ikka Fjord of [[Greenland]], ikaite was also observed to grow in columns similar to the tufa towers of Mono Lake.<ref name=Buchardt2001>{{cite journal|last1=Buchardt|first1=B|last2=Israelson|first2=C|last3=Seaman|first3=P|last4=Stockmann|first4=G|year=2001|title=Ikaite tufa towers in Ikka Fjord, southwest Greenland: their formation by mixing of seawater and alkaline spring water|journal=Journal of Sedimentary Research|volume=71|issue=1|pages=176–189|doi=10.1306/042800710176|bibcode=2001JSedR..71..176B}}</ref> This has led scientists to believe that thinolitic tufa is an indicator of [[Paleoclimatology|past climates]] in Mono Lake because they reflect very cold temperatures.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Whiticar|first1=MJ|last2=Suess|first2=E|title=The Cold Carbonate Connection Between Mono Lake, California and the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica|journal=Aquatic Geochemistry|volume=4|pages=429–454|year=1998|issue=3/4 |doi=10.1023/A:1009696617671|s2cid=130488236 }}</ref>