Uyuni Salt Basin
This image shows the central Andes highland region, called Altiplano where mountains 5,000 to 6,000m high stand close together. Uyuni salt basin is located at an altitude of 3,600m above sea level. It emerged nearly concurrently with the Atacama salt basin by almost the same process as the latter. After the Ice Age, it dried up, generating various sized and diversely shaped salt sites and salt lakes. The biggest one among them is this Uyuni salt basin. The size is half as big as Shikoku island and is almost circular in shape.
This image shows the northwest part of that. The white portion in the east is the salt site. Mountains to the west are 5,000 to 6,000m high, constituting steep topography due to difference of 1,400 to 2,400m in height, and with only a token amount of vegetation in the valleys.
This is a strong wind region, too. In the dry season, it is possible to cut out dried salt into boards and carry them to the salt refining factories in this neiborhood.
It happens to be a mineral tresure ground as the result of mountain movement for a long time. At the south side of the site, lies the world's biggest Chquicamata open air copper mine.
It doesn't rain often here in this highland, establishing scenes of grandiose mountains and clear blue sky. Condors circling around here are well-known as a pronoun of the Andes.
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