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FROM WIKIPEDIA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni
Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat
at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro
departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters (11,975 feet)
high. The major minerals found in the salar are halite and gypsum.
Formation:
Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric
lake. When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake,
and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25
times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.
Economic influence:
Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less
than 25,000 tons is extracted annually. All miners working in the Salar belong to
Colchani's cooperative. Every November, Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding grounds for
three species of South American flamingos: the Chilean, James's and Andean flamingos. It
is also a significant tourist destination; highlights include a salt hotel and several
so-called islands. As it is so flat it serves as a major transport route across the
Bolivian Altiplano.
Also, Salar de Uyuni holds half of the world's reserves of
lithium, a metal which is used in high energy density batteries. There is currently no
mining plant at the site and the Bolivian government doesn't want to allow exploitation by
foreign corporations, but instead it intends to build its own pilot plant.
Satellite calibration:
Due to its large size, smooth surface, high surface reflectivity when covered
with shallow water, and minimal elevation deviation, Salar de Uyuni makes an ideal target
for the testing and calibration of remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites used
to study the Earth. In addition to providing an excellent target surface the skies above
Salar de Uyuni are so clear, and the air so dry, that the surface works up to five times
better for satellite calibration than using the surface of the ocean. In September
2002 a team took detailed GPS elevation measurements of a portion of the salt flats. This
GPS data was then compared to the data from several ICESat passes over the area were used
to evaluate the accuracy and precision of ICESat's instruments. |
