The Amazing Pictures Of Salar De Uyuni: The Largest Salt Flat In The World
Salar de Uyuni (a.k.a. Salar de Tunupa) which can be found in southwest Bolivia, close to the crest of the Andes, is one of the most visually striking places in South America. Photographers swarm here on a daily basis to capture the fascinating landscape created by spectacular geological formations, geothermal springs and, brine lakes. Extending in an area of 10,582 square kilometers, it's the biggest salt flat in the world. Salar de Uyuni approximately has a reserve of 10 billion tons of salt. Approximately 30 to 40 thousand years ago, this region was a part of a massive prehistoric lake named Lake Minchin. The lake went through a series of transformations between a couple of giant lakes, and when it dried, it created two modern lakes, Poopo Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two important salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Salar de Uyuni.
During the dry months, the salt planes are totally flat expanses of dry salt, however, when the wet season comes, the neighboring Lake Poopo overflows and floods Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni, covering both of them with a thin layer of water that looks stunning under the bright blue sky.
Underneath the surface of Salar, a lake of brine can be found and it's 2 to 20 meters deep. The lake is covered with a solid salt layer with a thickness ranging between tens of centimeters to a couple of meters.
A couple of islands can be found in the center of the Salar and those are the remains of the tops of prehistoric volcanoes which were submerged during the era of Lake Minchin. They include peculiar and delicate coral-like structures and deposits that usually consist of fossils and algae.
This photo is from the Land Rover G4 Challenge of 2006 staged in Salar de Uyuni.
This photo was taken in the wet season, and during the wet season, the Poopo Lake overflows into Salar de Uyuni, turning it into a giant mirror.
The Salar contains big amounts of sodium, potassium, lithium, magnesium, and borax. With approximately 5,400,000 tonnes, Bolivia has roughly half of the world's lithium reserves, and most of these reserves can be found in Salar de Uyuni.
Even though the place has a huge reserve, there's currently no mining plant at the site, since the Bolivian government doesn't want to allow exploitation by foreign corporations. They are actually planning to construct their own pilot plant, instead.
Salar de Uyuni is thought to have approximately 10 billion tons of salt and less than 25,000 tons of this salt can be extracted every year.
Salt Hotels- Salar de Uyuni is a popular spot for tourists from all around the globe. Since the place has an isolated location, there are a couple of hotels in the area for the accommodation of the tourists.
Because of the lack of ordinary construction materials, many of them are nearly completely built with salt blocks cut from the Salar- including walls, roof, and furniture.
The first of these salt hotels called Hotel de Sal Playa was constructed in 1993-1995 in the middle of the salt flat, and it quickly became a popular tourist destination. They added a lot of other hotels and hostels made out of salt after the popularity of this first one.
The Salar almost has no wildlife and vegetation, apart from massive cacti that grow at a rate of roughly 1 centimeter per year to a length of approximately 12 meters. A couple of shrubs and bushes are scattered all over the place.
Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding place for pink South American Flamingos, and these animals are thought to have their color due to the fact that they feed on pink algae. Other than this one, there are also 80 other bird species present, including the horned coot, the Andead goose, and the Andean Hillstar.
