Comments on: The world’s largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni

By: Luis Moreno

Luis Moreno — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:06:34 +0000

Yep, you’re right. This salar has been used in satellite calibration.

By: Rollo

Rollo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:38:38 +0000

Am I not right in thinking the same desert is used for recalibrating the white balance on satellite imagery too?

By: Gesh

Gesh — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:59:28 +0000

I was there last year and the hotel “The White Beach Hotel” is still open. didn’t stay in it, but most of the tours stop there.

North of the Salar on the slopes of the volcano there are some mummies in a cave that anyone can visit.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/18944168

They are right here: View Placemark / Google Earth just above this village. View Placemark / Google Earth

By: dcsohl

dcsohl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:42:13 +0000

You should look at the Wikipedia page for info on the biosphere. Turns out, there's actually some around the edges. Not so much in the middle, above microscopic organisms of course.

But the edges (and "islands" in the middle) are home to giant cacti (with visible similarities to saguaros but taxonomically very distinct), foxes, flamingos, a variety of other birds, and more.

It appears, though, that the salt flats are merely the lid on a giant pool of super-saturated briny water (containing lithium chloride, magnesium chloride and sodium chloride), which is where the lithium is really at. With the right environmental controls, I expect oil-rig-style drilling would be pretty easy to pull off without overly disturbing the surface environment.

Though what sorts of interesting micro-organisms we may find living in that brine... I do not know. But I know they do exist. We've found life everywhere else, including the lakes in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. It will exist here too.

By: cookie monster

cookie monster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:10:52 +0000

Whilst i admire Bolivia’s reluctance to allow mining companies loose – can anyone tell me what, if any, the environmental impact of extracting the lithium would be? I cant image there is any eco system to speak of. Im not coming down on any side here – just genuinely interested.