There are some wonderful places in our world where people are amazed.
Salar de Uyuni is one of these amazing places.
It is a place called the Mirror of the Earth.
In today's episode, we will look at this wonderful place in the world, that thousands of tourists
visit every year.
Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at over 10,000 square kilometers in area.
It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia.
It is near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of 3,656 m above sea level.
The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes that existed
around forty thousand years ago but had all evaporated over time.
It is now covered by a few meters of salt crust.
It has an extraordinary flatness with average elevation variations within one meter over
the entire area of the Salar.
The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich
in lithium.
The Salar serves as the major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano.
It is a prime breeding ground for several species of flamingos.
Salar de Uyuni is also a climatological transitional zone that forms in the eastern part of the
salt.
Salar de Uyuni is part of the Altiplano of Bolivia in South America.
The Altiplano is a high plateau, which was formed during the uplift of the Andes Mountains.
The plateau includes fresh and saltwater lakes as well as salt flats and is surrounded by
mountains with no drainage outlets.
The geological history of the Salar is associated with a sequential transformation between several
vast lakes.
Some 30,000 to 42,000 years ago, the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake.
Its age was estimated by radiocarbon dating shells from outcropping sediments and carbonate
reefs and varies between reported studies.
The center of the Salar contains a few islands, which are the remains of the tops of ancient
volcanoes submerged during the era of Lake Minchin.
They include unusual and fragile coral-like structures and deposits that often consist
of fossils and algae.
The area has a relatively stable average temperature with a peak at 21 °C from November to January,
and a low of 13 °C in June.
The nights are cold all through the year, with temperatures between −9 and 5 °C.
The relative humidity is rather low and constant throughout the year at 30% to 45%.
The rainfall is also low at 1 to 3 mm per month between April and November, but it may
increase up to 80 mm in January.
However, except for January, even in the rainy season the number of rainy days is fewer than
5 per month.
Salar de Uyuni is a popular tourist destination, and consequently, a number of hotels have
been built in the area.
Due to the lack of conventional construction materials, many of them are almost entirely
built with salt blocks cut from the Salar.
One major tourist attraction is an antique train cemetery.
It is 3 km outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks.
The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals en route
to Pacific Ocean ports.