Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, 25,000 tons of which is extracted annually.
The area is covered with several feet of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average elevation variations within 3.3 ft over the entire site. When the lake dried up, it left behind a few seasonal puddles and salt pans, including Salar de Uyuni. Roughly 30,000-40,000 years ago, the area was part of a giant prehistoric body of water, Lake Minchin. Located in the Daniel Campos Province in Posti, Southwestern Bolivia the area sits at 11,995 feet above sea level. The salt flat spans across 4,805 square miles, roughly one hundred times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.
Thus Salar de Uyuni can be loosely translated as a “salt flat with enclosures.” But the unique mirror effect is what the area is really known for. Salar means “salt flat” in Spanish and Uyuni originates from the Aymara language and translates as “pen” (or enclosure). Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, has more to offer than its unique desert-like ecosystem.
0 kommentar(er)
