Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
Astronaut photograph of the northern end of the salar and the dormant volcano Mount Tunupa. It was acquired on November 3, 2005, with a Kodak 760C digital camera with an 180 mm lens. (Source: ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center, NASA) The largest salar (salt flat) in the world, Salar de Uyuni (20° 14' 58.2" S, 67° 30' 1.8" W), is located within the Altiplano of Bolivia in South America. The Altiplano is a high plateau formed during uplift of the Andes Mountains. The plateau harbors fresh and saltwater lakes, together with salars, that are surrounded by mountains with no drainage outlets—all at elevations greater than 3,659 meters (12,000 feet) above mean sea level. The Salar de Uyuni covers approximately 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles), and it is a major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano due to its flatness.
The salar was formerly occupied by a series of large lakes. The youngest was a shallow palaeolake, 'Coipasa', radiocarbon-dated between 11,500 and 13,400 calendar years before present (cal. yr bp). The youngest deep palaeolake, 'Tauca', was previously dated using carbonate fossils from outcropping sediments and carbonate bioherms (reefs) that mark past highstands. Published radiocarbon dates indicate that palaeolake Tauca existed from about 13,000 to 18,000 cal. yr bp
The existence of an older deep palaeolake, 'Minchin', was postulated on the basis of two published radiocarbon dates (about 30,000 and 32,000 cal. yr bp) of shells from outcropping sediments. The evidence for the existence of these, and even older, palaeolakes on the Altiplano has been well documented.
This astronaut photograph features the northern end of the salar and the dormant volcano Mount Tunupa (center of the image). This mountain is high enough to support a summit glacier and enough rain falls on the windward slopes to provide water for small communities along the base. The dark volcanic rocks comprising Mt. Tunupa are in sharp contrast with the white, mineral-crusted surface of the salar. The major minerals are halite—common table salt—and gypsum—a common component of drywall.
Relict shorelines visible in the surface salt deposits (lower right of the image) attest to the occasional presence of small amounts of water in the salar. Sediments in the salar basin record fluctuations in water levels that occurred as the lake that once occupied the salar evaporated. These sediments provide a valuable paleoclimate record for the region. The dynamic geological history of the Altiplano is recorded in isolated “islands” within the salt flat (left side of the image); these islands are typically built from fossil coral reefs covered by Andean volcanic rocks.
Further reading
- Paul A. Baker, Catherine A. Rigsby, Geoffrey O. Seltzer, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Tim K. Lowenstein, Niklas P. Bacher and Carlos Veliz, Tropical climate changes at millennial and orbital timescales on the Bolivian Altiplano, Nature 409, 698-701 (8 February 2001) | doi:10.1038/35055524.
