; Trona is a carbonate mineral. Trona is a double salt of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate with two waters of hydration. The Trona in the photo came from Owens Lake, and is a evaporative deposit of the lake that once existed here. Minerals were first extracted from Owens Lake as far back as 1877. Owens Lake is a Pleistocene Lake, one of a chain extending from Mono Lake to Lake Manley in Death Valley. Due to the high concentration of dissolved minerals in the water it was a brackish lake. In 1913 the Los Angeles Aqueduct was completed, diverting the water to Los Angeles and the lake desicated by 1928, and is now a dry lake bed. Trona's major use is in glass manufacture, but it is used widely in many applications ranging from animal feed, chemical manufacture, to medicine.* *Source - US Borax