Paoha Island facts for kids
Paoha Island viewed from Mono Lake Visitor Center
|
|
 Paoha Island
Location in California
|
|
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mono County, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 38°00′01″N 119°00′57″W / 38.0002°N 119.0157°W |
| Total islands | 1 |
| Area | 3.5 sq mi (9.1 km2) |
| Length | 2 mi (3 km) |
| Width | 1.5 mi (2.4 km) |
| Highest elevation | 6,670 ft (2,033 m) |
| Administration | |
|
United States
|
|
| Demographics | |
| Population | Uninhabited |
Paoha Island is a special volcanic island found in Mono Lake, a unique salty lake in California, USA. This island was created by a series of volcanic eruptions that happened way back in the 1600s. It's made up of lake mud and sand that rose up with the volcanic rock. Paoha Island is one of two main islands in Mono Lake. The other one is smaller and called Negit Island. The name "Paoha" comes from a Native American word that describes the many hot springs and steam vents on the island's surface.
How Paoha Island Was Born
Believe it or not, Paoha Island didn't exist before the mid-1600s! It was formed when volcanoes erupted right on the bottom of Mono Lake. The island slowly rose to be about 6,670 feet (2,030 m) above sea level. That's about 290 feet (88 m) higher than Mono Lake is today. The island looks light-colored because lake mud and sand were pushed up along with the volcanic material.
Because the island was formed by volcanoes, it has many cool features. You can find hot springs, steam vents (called fumaroles), and bubbling mudpots on its surface. One eruption, sometime before the 1900s, even created a crater lake shaped like a heart! Paoha Island is the younger of the two islands in Mono Lake. Negit Island formed about 1,350 years earlier.
A famous American geologist named Israel Cook Russell named Paoha Island in the late 1800s. The name supposedly comes from the Paiute word pa-o-ha. This word was for spirits that the Paiute people believed lived in the island's hot springs. These spirits were described as tiny, elf-like creatures with long, flowing hair. People sometimes saw them in the steam rising from the hot springs.
The surface of Paoha Island is mostly made of clay and a soft rock called marl. These materials give the island its pale color. You can also find volcanic ash scattered all over the island. Dark volcanic rock called basalt can be seen in some lower areas. There are also sediments left by ancient rivers and even some granite rocks.
Mark Twain's Adventure on Paoha Island
The famous writer Mark Twain wrote about a "voyage of discovery" to Paoha Island in his book Roughing It. He and a friend were camping by Mono Lake. They had heard that on the island, "within ten feet of the boiling spring is a spring of pure cold water." They were excited to find it, but when they got there, they found "nothing but solitude, ashes, and heartbreaking silence." They had already emptied their water bottles!
To make things worse, their rowboat, which they hadn't tied up, started to drift away. They realized they could get stuck there and die of thirst and hunger. It was a 12-mile swim back to shore. Plus, the lake's salty water was so strong it "would eat a man's eyes out like fire, and burn him out inside too." Luckily, as a storm started and the wind blew the rowboat past a part of the island, Twain's friend managed to jump aboard and get the boat back. What an adventure!
Exploring Paoha Island
Paoha Island is located in the middle of Mono Lake. It's a bit closer to the western shore. The island is shaped like an oval, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from north to south and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from east to west. A narrow channel separates it from Negit Island, which is to its north. When the water level in Mono Lake is very low, Negit Island and then Paoha Island can actually connect to the mainland. They become one giant peninsula.
The island is more mountainous on its east side. The highest volcanic domes rise about 200 feet (61 m) or more above the lake's surface. The tallest cone, which holds the heart-shaped crater lake, is at the far northeastern end of the island. You can also spot several small islets (tiny islands) off the west and south shores of Paoha Island.
