Paoha Island is a volcanic
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
in
Mono Lake
Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water alk ...
, an
endorheic
An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...
lake in the U.S. state of
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
The island was formed by a series of eruptions in the 17th century. It is composed of lakebed sediments deposited above volcanic domes. It is one of two major islands in the lake, the other being the smaller
Negit Island
Negit Island is an island in Mono Lake. Negit (along with nearby Paoha Island) is a volcanic cone less than 2000 years old. It can be considered to be the northernmost of the Mono Craters. Negit is composed of three dark dacite lava flows.
Neg ...
. Its name comes from a Native American word, ''Pa-o-ha'', describing the abundant
hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
s and
fumarole
A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...
s on its surface.
History and geology
Before the mid-17th century, the present-day Paoha Island did not exist.
[Hill, p. 327] Volcanic eruptions on the lakebed gave rise to the island, which eventually rose to above sea level, above the present-day elevation of Mono Lake. The pale color of the island is attributed to lakebed sediments rising above the lake surface along with the volcanic material.
The volcanic origin of the island gave rise to many vents, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots on the surface of the island. An eruption sometime before the twentieth century created a
crater lake
Crater Lake (Klamath language, Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The ...
that is shaped like a heart. Paoha Island is the younger of the two Mono Lake islands; Negit rose about 1,350 years before Paoha.
Paoha Island was named by
Israel Cook Russell, a well-known American geologist, in the late 19th century. It supposedly received its name from the
Paiute
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...
word ''pa-o-ha'', for spirits they believed to exist in Paoha Island's hot springs. These spirits, or elves, were described as "diminutive sprites having
long, waving hair, that were sometimes seen in the vapor-wreaths escaping from the hot springs."
The surface sediments of Paoha Island consist primarily of
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and
marl
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
Marl makes up the lower part o ...
, which are responsible for the pale surface.
Volcanic ash
Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcano, volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used t ...
is scattered all around the island and
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
is exposed at some of the lower elevations. There are also river-deposited sediments and
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
rocks.
[Russell, p. 212]
In his semi-autobiographical book ''
Roughing It
''Roughing It'' is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature by Mark Twain. It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872, as a prequel to his first travel book ''The Innocents Abroad'' (1869). ''Roughing It'' is dedicated to Twa ...
'', writer
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
recounted a "voyage of discovery" to the island while camping on the shores of Mono Lake.
He and a companion had been led to believe that on the island "within ten feet of the boiling spring is a spring of pure cold water, sweet and pure," but once there they "found nothing but solitude, ashes, and heartbreaking silence"—and they had already emptied their canteens.
Meanwhile, their untethered rowboat began to drift away. Marooned, they would have died of thirst and starvation: it was a twelve-mile swim back to shore and "that venomous
ake
Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It's located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán.
The name ...
water would eat a man's eyes out like fire, and burn him out inside too, if he shipped a sea."
As the wind of a rising storm blew the rowboat past an island cape, Twain's companion managed to jump aboard and recover it.
Description
Paoha Island is located in the central part of Mono Lake, slightly closer to the western shore. It is a roughly oval-shaped landmass north-south and east-west. It is separated from Negit Island, to the north-northwest, by a narrow channel. During low water levels, Negit Island and eventually Paoha Island become connected to the mainland in one giant
peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...
.
The island is more mountainous near the east side, with the highest volcanic domes rising more or less than above the lake surface. The highest cone, which contains the heart-shaped crater lake, is located at the far northeastern end of the island. Several small islets are located off the island's west and south shores.
References
Works cited
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See also
*
List of islands of California
This list of islands of California is organized into sections, generally arranged from north to south. The islands within each section are listed in alphabetical order.
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) lists 527 named islands in the ...
{{authority control
Islands of Mono County, California
Inyo National Forest
Landforms of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
Lake islands of California
Islands of Northern California
Uninhabited islands of California