But inventive humans have discovered innumerable ways to put the salt flat to use, from shooting seductive photographs to measuring the terrain to improve satellites that orbit the Earth.Ī group of scientists conducted a survey of the Salar de Uyuni. It’s an inhospitable environment, one in which a limited number of specialized plant and animal species can survive, including three species of flamingo that congregate on the flats every November to breed. The paleolakes dried up during the Holocene (the geological epoch that began 11,700 years ago and continues to the present), creating the salar: a dried salt crust that is sporadically covered in a thin layer of water. These lakes waxed and waned throughout that time, with colder climates engendering greater precipitation and larger lakes. According to one study, the Altiplano was covered by large paleolakes during the last glacial stage. The Salar de Uyuni as it appears today is the result of cyclical changes in the regional climate. It’s also a popular tourist destination and the location of an enormous lithium reserve, making Uyuni a source of national pride, contention, and incredible untapped wealth. With an average elevation of 3,700 meters (12,139 feet) and a surface area of approximately 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles), the Salar de Uyuni is a unique and important ecosystem. The salar (Spanish for “salt lake”) belongs to the Altiplano of the high Andes, the world’s second-largest plateau. Stretching out toward a seemingly infinite horizon, its flat surface making a mirror of the sky during the rainy season, the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world’s largest salt flat.
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