The Mono–Inyo Craters are a north–south-trending volcanic chain in Eastern California that stretch 25 miles (40 km) from the northwest shore of Mono Lake to south of Mammoth Mountain. The chain is located in Mono County in the U.S. State of California. Eruptions along the narrow fissure system under the chain began in the west moat of Long Valley Caldera 400,000 to 60,000 years ago. Mammoth Mountain was formed during this period. Multiple eruptions from 40,000 to 600 years ago created Mono Craters and eruptions 5,000 to 500 years ago formed Inyo Craters. The area has been used by humans for centuries. Obsidian was collected by Mono Paiutes for making sharp tools and arrow points.Mono Mills processed timber felled on or near the volcanoes for the nearby boomtown Bodie in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Water diversions into the Los Angeles Aqueduct system from their natural outlets in Mono Lake started in 1941 after a water tunnel was cut under Mono Craters. Mono Lake Volcanic Field and a large part of Mono Craters gained some protection under Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area in 1984. Resource use along all of the chain is managed by the United States Forest Service as part of Inyo National Forest.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono%E2%80%93Inyo_Craters

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1754:

French and Indian War: Led by 22-year-old George Washington, a company of colonial militia from Virginia ambushed a force of 35 Canadiens in the Battle of Jumonville Glen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jumonville_Glen

1905:

Japanese forces led by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the decisive naval battle in the Russo-Japanese War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima

1918:

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, one of the first democratic republics in the Muslim world, was proclaimed in Ganja by the Azerbaijani National Council following the breakup of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic

1987:

West German Mathias Rust flew his Cessna 172 through the supposedly impregnable Soviet air defense system and landed in Red Square in Moscow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust

1998:

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission carried out five underground nuclear tests, becoming the seventh country in the world to successfully develop and publicly test nuclear weapons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagai-I

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

personal space (n): 1. The area in which a person or animal usually moves and which it knows well. 2. The area immediately surrounding someone which is felt to be theirs, encroachment on which may cause discomfort or hostility http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/personal_space

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

War of any kind is abhorrent. Remember that since the end of World War II, over 40 million people have been killed by conventional weapons. So, if we should succeed in averting nuclear war, we must not let ourselves be sold the alternative of conventional weapons for killing our fellow men. We must cure ourselves of the habit of war. --Patrick White http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_White