[3][4] Historically, the native Kutzadika'a people ate the alkali flies' pupae, which live in the shallow waters around the edge of the lake.

[8]: 45 From 4.5 to 2.6 million years ago, large volumes of basalt were extruded around what is now Cowtrack Mountain (east and south of Mono Basin); eventually covering 300 square miles (780 km2) and reaching a maximum thickness of 600 feet (180 m).

Volcanic activity is related to the Mono–Inyo Craters: the most recent eruption occurred 350 years ago, resulting in the formation of Paoha Island.

High concentrations of dissolved calcium ions in these subsurface waters cause huge amounts of calcite to precipitate around the spring orifices.

It is also believed that calcite crystallization inhibitors such as phosphate, magnesium, and organic carbon may aid in the stabilization of ikaite.

[21][22] In the Ikka Fjord of Greenland, ikaite was also observed to grow in columns similar to the tufa towers of Mono Lake.

[23] This has led scientists to believe that thinolitic tufa is an indicator of past climates in Mono Lake because they reflect very cold temperatures.

[25] An unintended consequence of ending the water diversions was the onset of a period of "meromixis" in Mono Lake.

The reconstruction of historical Mono Lake levels through carbon and oxygen isotopes have also revealed a correlation with well-documented changes in climate.

Following the Pleistocene, the lake level was generally lower due to increased evaporation and decreased precipitation associated with a warmer climate.

[35] Alkali flies, Ephydra hians, live along the shores of the lake and walk underwater, encased in small air bubbles, for grazing and to lay eggs.

Some shorebirds that depend on the resources of Mono Lake include American avocets, killdeer, and sandpipers.

Since abandoning the landbridged Negit Island in the late 1970s, California gulls have moved to some nearby islets and have established new, if less protected, nesting sites.

Cornell University and Point Blue Conservation Science have continued the study of nesting populations on Mono Lake that was begun 35 years ago.

In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power extended the Los Angeles Aqueduct system farther northward into the Mono Basin with the completion of the Mono Craters Tunnel[46] between the Grant Lake Reservoir on Rush Creek and the Upper Owens River.

So much water was diverted that evaporation soon exceeded inflow and the surface level of Mono Lake fell rapidly.

By 1990, the lake had dropped 45 vertical feet and had lost half its volume relative to the 1941 pre-diversion water level.

[49] The National Science Foundation funded the first comprehensive ecological study of Mono Lake, conducted by Gaines and undergraduate students.

He and Sally Judy, a UC Davis student, led the committee and pursued an informational tour of California.

In 2004, Nancy Holt made a short film entitled Mono Lake using Super 8 footage and photographs of this trip.

An audio recording by Smithson and Heizer, two songs by Waylon Jennings, and Michel Legrand's Le Jeu, the main theme of Jacques Demy's film Bay of Angels (1963), were used for the soundtrack.

[55] The Diver, a photo taken by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis for Pink Floyd's album Wish You Were Here (1975), features what appears to be a man diving into a lake, creating no ripples.

[56] Mark Twain's Roughing It, published in 1872, provides an informative early description of Mono Lake in its natural condition in the 1860s.

[57][58] Twain found the lake to be lying "in a lifeless, treeless, hideous desert... the loneliest place on earth.

[61] Most of the film High Plains Drifter (1973) by Clint Eastwood was shot on the southern shores of Mono Lake in the 1970s.

[62] The music video for glam metal band Cinderella's 1988 power ballad "Don't Know What You Got ('Till It's Gone)" was filmed by the lake.