Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine or thermogene travertine. Tufa is sometimes referred to as meteogene travertine.
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👉 Tufa in the context of Mono County, California
Mono County (/ˈmoʊnoʊ/ MOH-noh) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The county is located east of the Sierra Nevada between Yosemite National Park and Nevada. The only incorporated town in the county is Mammoth Lakes, which is located at the foot of Mammoth Mountain. Other locations, such as June Lake, are also famous as skiing and fishing resorts. Located in the middle of the county is Mono Lake, a vital habitat for millions of migratory and nesting birds. The lake is located in a wild natural setting, with pinnacles of tufa arising out of the salty and alkaline lake. Also located in Mono County is Bodie, the official state gold rush ghost town, which is now a California State Historic Park.
In this Dossier
Tufa in the context of Limescale
Limescale is a hard, chalky deposit, consisting mainly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It often builds up inside kettles, boilers, and pipework, especially those used for hot water. It is also often found as a similar deposit on the inner surfaces of old pipes and other surfaces where hard water has flowed. Limescale also forms as travertine or tufa in hard water springs.
The colour varies from off-white through a range of greys and pink or reddish browns, depending on the other minerals present. Iron compounds give the reddish-browns.
Tufa in the context of Travertine
Travertine (/ˈtrævərtiːn/ TRAV-ər-teen) is a form of fresh water limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and rusty varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot spring or in a limestone cave. In the latter, it can form stalactites, stalagmites, and other speleothems.
Travertine is frequently used in Italy and elsewhere as a building material. Similar, but softer and extremely porous deposits formed from ambient-temperature water are known as tufa.
Tufa in the context of Trona Pinnacles
The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), some as high as 140 ft (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side.
Tufa in the context of Banditaccia
Cerveteri (Italian: [tʃerˈvɛːteri]) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Italian region of Lazio. Known by the ancient Romans as Caere, and previously by the Etruscans as Caisra or Cisra, and as Agylla (or Άγυλλα) by the Greeks, its modern name derives from Caere Vetus used in the 13th century to distinguish it from Caere Novum (the current town).
It is the site of an ancient Etruscan city, one of the most important Etruscan cities, with an area more than 15 times larger than today's town. The best-known structures on the site form the Banditaccia Necropolis, and comprises all of the most important tumulus tombs and chambers known. Cut out of tufa, most of the tombs echo Greek architecture.