Salar de Uyuni

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Coordinates: 20°08′01.59″S, 67°29′20.88″W

Location of Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni from space, with Mount Tunupa in the middle. 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.

Salar de Uyuni is with its 4,085 square miles (10,582 square km) [1] the world's largest salt flat. It is located in the Departmento of Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3650 meters high. The major minerals found in the salar are halite and gypsum.

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 and Uru Uru, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the better-known Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.

Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually. Every November, Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding grounds for three breeds of South American flamingos - Chilean, James's and Andean. It is also a significant tourist destination: highlights include a salt hotel and several so-called islands.

Matt Harding, from the Internet phenomenon "Where the Hell is Matt?," danced in Salar de Uyuni for his second travel video, seen here at [2].