Salar de Uyuni in south-west Bolivia was once part of a massive prehistoric lake but today is the world’s largest salt flat. When dry it’s a barren landscape, so featureless that it’s great for perspective tricks – but during the wet season it becomes a spectacular giant mirror.

Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain as much as 10 billion tonnes of salt, and about 25,000 tonnes is collected here each year, using the traditional method of sweeping the salt up into neat piles to dry before being carted away.

However, salt is not Salar de Uyuni’s only valuable mineral: it also contains an estimated 5.4 million tonnes of Lithium, which is estimated to be between 50% and 70% of the world’s entire lithium supply! As a vital part of many electric batteries demand for lithium is on the increase, but Bolivia has been reluctant to let foreign mining companies onto the flat, instead opting to build their own modest plant which should be operational by 2012.

In the meantime, Salar de Uyuni still helps the economy through tourism. Hotel de Sal Playa Bianca, or “The White Beach Hotel” was built right in the middle of the salt flat and constructed from the very same salt. Unfortunately, due to the difficulties in sanitation, it was closed down in 2002.

Thankfully tourists can still experience living in a house of salt at either Hotel Luna Salada or the newer Palacio del Sal, both of which are built just on the edge of the salt flat. In an effort to protect their building from degradation, the Palacio del Sal enforces a strict “no licking the walls” policy.

Tourists to the area may also take a visit to Incahuasi island, also known as Island of the Fish. Located within the salt flat it is technically not an island, and is home to no fish. If that doesn’t tempt you, you could always visit the nearby town of Uyuni, which has a massive train boneyard.

Using the heat from the Earth’s interior to generate electricity is known as the creation of geothermal power, and in the examples featuring 2000-metre boreholes, it’s correctly believed to be a fairly recent development. In some places however, the energy from the hot parts of the Earth’s inner layers can be harvested with little more than a spade.

The area around Larderello¹ in Tuscany’s Cecina valley has an abundance of hot wells (lagoni) and natural steam fountains (sofioni), where the escaping steam leaves the ground under very high pressure at temperatures of over 200°C; making it ideal for power generation.

The gases released here also smell strongly of sulphur, which is why this is known as Valle del Diavolo – “The Devil’s Valley”.

A working geothermal generator (using a steam-powered piston engine) was demonstrated² here as early as 1904, and Larderello actually became the location of the world’s first geothermal power plant all the way back in 1913! Today, over one third of the electricity consumed in Tuscany is produced by local geothermal plants.

The whole countryside around the town is criss-crossed by large insulated pipelines transporting superheated steam from the wells to the power station.

In 2005, nearly 10% of the world’s geothermal electricity was produced in Larderello, but as more, high-tech geothermal power stations have been built around the world, this proportion has shrunk dramatically.

You can take a guided tour if you’re in the area, of which one of the highlights is a steam outlet that the tour guide opens with a remote control to create a deafeningly loud, and very impressive-looking column of steam:

You can read more about Geothermal power at Wikipedia.

If you ever need reminded of just how powerful Mother Nature can be, look no further than the city of Greensburg, Kansas.

A small community in the heart of the United States, Greensburg has had its share of severe conditions over the years. Now, thanks to the differing image capture dates, we’re able to see a dramatic before and after comparison of the most extreme weather to hit the town in its history.

The aerial view of the city shows a community very similar to many other towns scattered across the Kansas countryside. Switching to street view however is an entirely different story. On May 4, 2007, over 95 percent of the city was destroyed when a 2.7 km (1.7 mile) wide EF5 tornado¹ ripped through town. The National Weather Service recorded 330km/h (220mph) winds during the storm, which sadly killed 11 people.²

Driving around town in the virtual street car, it’s hard to find a single thing built before the tornado that remains standing today. Most of the structures visible in street view, including the water tower, were subsequently rebuilt.

Greensburg is home to the world’s largest hand dug well, which is 33 m (109 ft) deep and nearly 10 metres (32 ft) across.³ Known as the “Big Well”, its associated museum was completely destroyed by the winds, but a 450 kg meteorite stored in the museum survived, and was found a few days later in amongst the rubble⁴.

Greensburg today is rebuilding as a “green” town. Reconstruction is being accomplished with ecologically-sound building supplies. A new factory is being built near town to manufacture ultra-green modular homes, and the city will be breaking ground on a facility for four 2.5-MW wind turbines to handle all their power needs. Maybe the city’s name is a coincidence, but Greensburg may soon be the greenest town in America.

Information about the Greensburg tornado can be found on Wikipedia, and you can read about Greensburg’s rebuilding effort on their website.

Another month, another absolutely massive Street View update. The big news is that Google has launched a wealth of imagery for previously uncovered Mexico; but they’ve also added imagery to Hawaii for the first time, added many new places in the Netherlands, and also provided brand new coverage for huge areas of Spain.

Mexico

In Mexico the cities of Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and Cancun have all received coverage. So far we’ve spotted the world famous Teotihuacan pyramid, complete with people on top (previously covered in 2005):

The world’s largest bullring, which we viewed from above earlier this year.

And one of Mexico’s greatest exports, character piñatas.

Hawaii

Until now Hawaii was the only US state to not have Streetview coverage – but Google has now remedied that by bringing us imagery of main island of Hawaii. Here, covered in a blue tarpaulin, we can see the nose cone of the plane that was used in the opening episode of Lost – which was filmed around here somewhere…

Netherlands

The Netherlands already had excellent coverage, which allowed us to see all sorts of exciting nudity, prostitution, and other Not Safe For Work antics. The latest update goes on to cover Utrecht, Den Haag¹, Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Tilburg, Leeuwarden, Apeldoorn, Deventer and Amersfoort!

All of this means we can now see the brilliant Kubuswoning from ground-level (previously covered in 2006):

The windmills at the popular tourist destination, Kinderdijk, were captured by the Google Trike (turn round for loads more):

Spain

Finally Spain, which already had good coverage, has received an almost total blanket of blue streets. The updates extend right out to the Canary Islands, now covering Mallorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.

Here’s the Guggenheim Bilbao, complete with another massive spider (they pop up everywhere on Streetview it seems), which we covered back in 2005:

For continuing Spanish-language coverage of all the new Streetview imagery, you should follow Google Sightseeing Español on Twitter.

Have you found something interesting? Leave a comment below!

The Millennium Dome was an exhibition centre built in London to celebrate the first year of the new millennium¹. It has since been converted into the O2 entertainment complex.

Whatever the name, we’re very impressed with the shadows cast by the twelve 100m tall pylons, which are intended to represent a clock face, a nod to the Greenwich Meridian which runs nearby.

The pylons anchor cables which support gleaming white plastic-coated fibreglass panels. At 365m across (representing the number of days in the year), this is the largest dome of its type in the world. It reaches a height of 50m, and encloses an area of more than 80,000 square metres. Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond fell down the outside of The Dome during the opening sequence of The World Is Not Enough.

The uniformity of The Dome is interrupted by one flaw – a large hole had to be left in the structure to accommodate a ventilation shaft from the Blackwall Tunnel which runs below the site.

The Millennium Experience opened on January 1, 2000. It was conceived as a showcase of British excellence – a blend of art, performance and exploration in 14 zones funded by a top-notch collection of sponsors eager to attach their brand to the promise of the new millennium.

However, the reality² was that, despite the project running considerably over budget, visitors often found the queues unbearable and the exhibits confusing. This resulted in a media backlash, though it is claimed that visitor feedback was generally positive (even if the total number of visitors was half what was originally hoped).

After closing at the end of 2000, the contents of The Dome were auctioned off³, and the facility sat idle other than for occasional special events.

Approaching The Dome on Millennium Way

A development company purchased the site and sold naming rights to O2 in 2005. The interior was gutted and two years construction saw the creation of a fully enclosed entertainment ‘district’, dominated by a 20,000+ seat arena⁴, but also featuring cinemas, clubs, restaurants and exhibition spaces.

The O2 Arena has presented many of the world’s best known musical acts as well as sporting events and other spectacles. Prince played 21 shows shortly after the arena opened, and before his death earlier this year, Michael Jackson had scheduled (and sold out) 50 shows over 9 months.

The Dome from the north bank of the River Thames.

The Arena will host several events during the 2012 Olympics, though it will be renamed the North Greenwich Arena due to licensing and sponsorship restrictions.