When you purchase through link on our site , we may earn an affiliate perpetration . Here ’s how it works .
Name : Salar de Uyuni
Location : Andean plateau , southwest Bolivia
Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the biggest salt flat on Earth.
Coordinates:-20.279074890164193 , -67.35323215355417
Why it ’s incredible : The salt flat is the largest on Earth and contain a huge chunk of the world ’s Li .
Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt desert on Earth , stretching roughly 4,000 square miles ( 10,400 straight kilometers ) across the Andean tableland . Uyuni is notable for its gleam expanse of salt bathed in water , and for themesmerizing honeycomb patternsfound in the desert ’s driest corners .
Freshwater upwelling creates lakes that are a source of water for birds like flamingos.
Salar de Uyuni has an average elevation of 12,000 feet ( 3,660 meters ) above ocean level — but it was n’t always so . Around 5 million days ago , the realm where the Andes mess sit down today was low - lying and the climate became arid , Sarah McKnight , an assistant prof of hydrogeology at the University of Dayton in Ohio , recite Live Science .
have-to doe with : Andes region mold in 4 point over the last 24 million years , new moulding work suggests
Over time , utmost heat and scarce rain caused prehistorical lakes in the region to vaporize , leaving behind crusts of deposit and salt . Tectonic appendage and volcanic natural action then push those crust up onto a high tableland , where they stay to this daylight .
compare with other salt flat like Salar de Atacama in Chile , which has a salt crust more than 3,300 feet ( 1,000 m ) thick in some lieu , Salar de Uyuni is " pretty thin , " McKnight say , with a impertinence just 10 to 33 feet ( 3 to 10 one thousand ) thick-skulled . How much salinity amass on a table salt flat look on the geology of the surface area , McKnight aver , and the tectonic plate beneath Salar de Uyuni are much less active than those beneath Salar de Atacama . Salar de Uyuni ’s salt freshness covers a layer of extremely piquant water system , or brine . But weewee also posture on top of the crust in some lieu due to a mental process call in " freshwater upwelling , " McKnight said .
The salt flat is beleaguer by snowfall - capped mountains and volcanoes that supplying melt body of water to the rim of the crust . The freshwater slips beneath the crust but immediately separates from the seawater due to the remainder in salinity . " Since fresh water is less dense than the seawater , it ’s actually go to reverse or float , fundamentally , on top of the saltiness water , " McKnight said .
fresh water upwelling is when freshwater migrates up through the crust and springs to the surface , creating lake on the salt flat . Salar de Uyuni has between six and eight such lakes , which are life-sustaining for animals like flamingos that live in the desert , McKnight enounce . The size of the lakes varies depending on the season and on drought .
Freshwater dribble down from the surrounding tip is the reason why Salar de Uyuni is one of the rich reserves of lithium on Earth , McKnight said . Hydrothermal and volcanic activity in the Andes intend the slew are fat in mineral including lithium , which body of water picks up as it flows over the rocks .
The salt savourless sits in a cragged realm dubbed the " atomic number 3 triangle , " which admit parts of Bolivia , Argentina and Chile and holds 75 % of the world ’s lithium , accord to theHarvard International Review .
— Lake Kivu : The tick off metre bomb that could one day set off and unleash a massive , deadly accelerator cloud
— Last Chance Lake : The unusual ' tonic lake ' with conditions that may have given rise to life on Earth
— Argyle mine : Earth ’s hoarded wealth treasure trove of pinkish adamant hold during a supercontinent ’s breakup
Salar de Uyuni likely hold the lion ’s share of the imagination — 11.2 million tons ( 10.2 million metrical tons ) , or about 38 % of the world ’s known lithium provision , according to a 2012study . ( TheU.S. Geological Surveyestimates the table salt flat stop around a twenty-five percent of the humanity ’s supply , and the Harvard International Review quote up to 50 % . )
" What we think happens is [ that ] any inflowing water supply which has marginally lift degree of Li already from the hydrothermal and volcanic natural action of the Andes gets concentrated more and more over clock time because of [ evaporation ] , " McKnight said .
While resourcefulness geographic expedition ship’s company are concerned in Salar de Uyuni , the Li is so distribute out along the salt flat that " we do n’t have the useable technology for extracting it in an economical way at the moment , " McKnight said .
And that ’s good intelligence for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks flat , she say , because " these desert ecosystem are incredibly fragile . "
Discover moreincredible places , where we highlight the fantastical history and skill behind some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth .
El Cono : The mysterious sacred ' Pyramids of Egypt ' enshroud deep in the Amazon rainforest
Yellowstone holds potentially untapped cache of ' carbon paper - free ' helium for rockets , reactors and superconductors
What ’s hide out under Antarctica ’s ice ?
