Salar de Uyuni, located in Bolivia, is the world’s largest salt flat, covering 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 square miles).
Salar de Uyuni is located at the southern end of the Altiplano, a high plain with inland drainage in the central Andes. Salar derives from the Spanish word for salt, and Uyuni comes from the Aymara language (spoken in the Andes) and means a pen (enclosure).
This area was once a large prehistoric lake known as Lago Michin, which dried up around 15,000 to 10,000 years ago, leaving the enormous salt flat with the dissolved minerals in its waters. The Uyuni salt plain’s surface is composed of gypsum (calcium sulfate) and halite (sodium chloride).
Uyuni Salar’s topography
A surface elevation variation of less than one meter characterizes the extremely flat Salar de Uyuni. The surrounding landscape, in contrast, is incredibly mountainous, with the Andes mountains’ volcanoes making up a portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Salar de Uyuni as seen by radar
On April 20, 2014, the Sentinel-1A satellite took a picture of Salar de Uyuni.
Different rates of absorption from the radar cause the image in the salt plain area to have a wavy pattern; areas where the radar signal is absorbed appear darker, while areas where it is reflected back to the satellite appear lighter.
Mining for lithium on the salt flat
Salar de Uyuni’s surface layer is covered in a brine that is rich in minerals. The world’s largest reservoir of lithium, a valuable metal used in everything from batteries to oven-safe glass and ceramics, can be found in this brine.
Bolivia has created evaporation pools where pumped brine is funneled. Lithium chloride is found there. The elements of the brine crystallize outside in the sun. Following the removal of magnesium, postassium, and sulfate from the evaporated brine, lithium chloride can be converted into lithium carbonate, which can subsequently be sold for a profit.
According to a 2011 source, Salar de Uyuni may contain 100 million tons of lithium.
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