CraigBILL

Mono Lake of California is a large, shallow saline lake that formed at least 760,000 years ago. Because it lacks an outlet, dissolved salts make the lake very alkaline and salty.
It is also a notable unique habitat for GFAJ-1, an extremophile bacteria that may be capable of incorporating the usually poisonous element arsenic into its biochemistry.

The standing mineral structures or tufas, are a type of calcium carbonate that formed when mineral-rich springs under the lake react with the alkaline lake water. The towers that are currently visible all used to be hidden under the surface of the water - where they form - until 1941, when fresh water sources that fed the lake were diverted to the city Los Angeles. This caused the lake level to drop 45 feet exposing the tufas, and the adjoining alien landscape.

This is another image captured during quick fading twilight. Most of these type of images are longer exposures due to the inherit, and often problematic, dynamic, and low light conditions. So, even though there is a small window of time to capture such images, it is also a time of patience. Especially when other people continuously walk into your composition during an extended exposure!