Eastern Mojave Vegetation Mono Basin, Mono County, California.
 
Gazetteer

Query: G.N.I.S.

See also: Upper Mono Basin. Mono Lake.

See also: Bloody Canyon. Bloody Canyon (upper). Bodie Hills. Cowtrack Mountain. Lee Vining Canyon. Long Valley Caldera. Lundy Canyon. Sierra Nevada. Full Size Image Full Size Image

The Mono Basin is a closed, internal-drainage basin located East of Yosemite National Park in California, United States. It is bordered to the West by the Sierra Nevada, to the East by the Cowtrack Mountain, to the North by the Bodie Hills, and to the South by the North ridge of the Long Valley.

Geologically, Bursik and Sieh (1989) describe the Mono Basin as the area bounded by the Bodie Hills, Cowtrack Mountain, Long Valley Caldera, and the Sierra Nevada on the north, east, south, and west.

From a structural geology perspective, the Mono Basin is a down-warped structural basin bounded by flexures on the north, east, and west, and bounded by the Sierra Nevada frontal fault on the west. Structural development of the basin has occurred largely in the last 3 m. y. and is still in progress (Gilbert, C. M., M. N. Christensen, Yehya Al-Rawi, and K. R. Lajoie. 1968).

From a hydrographic perspective, the Mono Basin is defined by all streams that drain into Mono Lake. On the north, east and south, the hydrographic basin coincides roughly with the structural basin. However, on the west, the Mono Basin extends west of the Sierra Nevada frontal fault to the Sierra crest. Thus Tioga Pass, Mount Dana and Mount Conness are all on the western boundary of the Mono Basin. Major streams in the Mono Basin that originate in the high Sierra are Rush Creek, with tributaries Parker Creek and Walker Creek, Lee Vining Creek, and Mill Creek.

From a biogeographical perspective, I have found no definition of Mono Basin. The Jepson Manual (Hickman, 1993), places the lower portions of the Mono Basin in East of Sierra Nevada (SNE) which includes the Sweetwater Mountains, Bridgeport Valley, Bodie, Mono Basin, Long Valley, and the Owens Valley. The CalFlora Ecological Sub-Units divide the basin into Northern Mono (MNOn) and Southern Mono (MNOs). These sub-units extend to the Sierra crest on the west.

For my purposes, I have defined the Mono Basin hydrographically. However, I have also subdivided the basin into three sub-basins. They are:

  1. Upper Mono Basin being that part of the hydrographic basin above 8400 ft (2560 m),
  2. Alkali Valley in the northeastern Mono Basin, and
  3. Mono Basin proper.

    The separation of Upper Mono Basin from Mono Basin at 8400 feet is based upon several geographic objectives:

    1. Retain the June Lake Loop in Mono Basin, but all of upper Rush Creek beginning at Agnew Lake in Upper Mono Basin.
    2. Retain the floor of Lee Vining Canyon in the Mono Basin, but Ellery Lake and higher in the Upper Mono Basin.
    3. Retain the floor of Lundy Canyon including Lundy Lake in Mono Basin, but everything above there in Upper Mono Basin.


    Elevation: 6558ft, 1999m.

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Date and time this article was prepared:12:39:55 PM, 5/15/2008