The Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia is at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) and are a serious wonder of nature that really should be on everyone's bucket list. They are so alien and lifeless, with such extreme environmental conditions of altitude and dryness, that it feels more like going to a different planet than being here on planet earth.

You have probably seen images of this vast salty wasteland without even realizing it. That mirror image smoothness that reflects the clouds as if the earth and the sky are a single entity you see on travel sites, that's Uyuni. The phenomenon only occurs once or twice a year when the flats get its few centimeters of rainfall and the water has no where to go on the 10,582 square kilometers (4000 square miles) without any drainage outlets. You also see it in those images of funny forced perspective shots like this one.

These Aren't Your Grandma's Salt Flats

These aren't like the Bonneville salt flats. This vast salty wasteland is 100 times larger than Bonneville, and completely different in geography ⁽¹⁾. Bonneville is a dry inland lake bed, while Uyuni's altiplano is an inland ocean that was once at sea level. You heard that right, the sea used to be at sea level and over time was pushed up to by tectonic plates it's current altitude sickness-inducing height of 12,000 feet ⁽²⁾.

Unlike many other places that were pushed up from the seafloor, like the Himalayas, this entire ocean was brought up on a single plate. How do we know? The sea did not drain out; it's still there. Those endless miles of salt you see are not dry at all, they are a salt crust sitting on top of hundreds of feet of seawater that evaporated until it became so incredibly salty that if you break a hole in it, it will immediately begin to crystallize.

It's a strange sensation driving across the flats knowing that you are on a crust over the top of a sea. It's so stabile, however, there is even a public bus route that goes to the Atacama desert in Chile across the flats 8 hours away.

Uyuni Powers the Batteries of the World (and Can Help with Depression Too)

Surprisingly,this seawater provides power for half the world's batteries. Despite Bolivia being one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with a 46% poverty rate ⁽³⁾, the waters under the salt flats are one of the single richest sources of lithium in the world. Lithium batteries have been exploding on the market in recent years, most famously with the advent of Tesla Motors. Lithium is also used as a mental health drug and can help with certain kinds of depression.

Despite the fact that the water is actually quite low in lithium in comparison to other lithium water sources currently being mined, 0.032% in comparison to 0.157% for its neighbor, the Atacama desert in Chile ⁽⁴⁾, the inland sea still contains 25-50% of the entire world's lithium supply in one spot. With Uyuni's near infinite supply of seawater to mine, Bolivia is now producing almost 50% of the world's supply of lithium ⁽⁵⁾. Truly, the Uyuni salt flats are powering the world for the near future, and helping to keep us sane in the process.

All images are my own
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