Salar de Uyuni

salt flat in Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa)[1] is the world's largest salt flat. It is over 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) in area.[2]

Salar de Uyuni viewed from space, with Salar de Coipasa in the top left corner

It is in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an height of 3,656 metres (11,995 ft) above sea level.[3]

The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50% to 70% of the world's known lithium reserves.[4] The large area, clear skies, and exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar ideal for calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites.[5][6]

References

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  1. "Salar de Tunupa". Iris en Tore op reis. 29 July 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  2. "Lithium Harvesting at Salar de Uyuni". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. 26 April 2019.
  3. "Uyuni Salt Flat". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2007-12-01.[permanent dead link]
  4. Keating, Joshua (2009-10-21). "Bolivia's Lithium-Powered Future: What the global battery boom means for the future of South America's poorest country". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 2014-09-17. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  5. Borsa, A. A; et al. (2002). "GPS Survey of the salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, for Satellite Altimeter Calibration". American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting. Bibcode:2002AGUFMOS52A0193B.
  6. Lamparelli, R. A. C.; et al. (2003). "Characterization of the Salar de Uyuni for in-orbit satellite calibration". IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 41 (6): 1461–1468. Bibcode:2003ITGRS..41.1461C. doi:10.1109/TGRS.2003.810713. S2CID 18716304.