Uyuni Salt Flats-largest salt flat in the world

Looks like mirror...right?

The Uyuni Salt Flat originated after a great lake that covered the area dried up 16,000 years ago. Uyuni Salt Flats, situated at southwest Bolivia and is the largest salt flat in the world. It covers an area of 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 square miles) and it sits at 11,995 feet above sea level. It is known all over the world mainly for its vast mirror like landscape and for its unique reflective surface during the raining season, and is well popular among photographers and travelers. Uyuni Salt Flat is also one of the main attractions of tourists.

The formation of these salt flats are associated with a lake. About 30,000 to 42,000 years ago, the area was associated with a giant prehistoric lake called Lake Minchin. Lake Minchin undergoes transformation into paleolake Tauca with a depth of 140 meters. With later transformation the lake turned into Salt Flats.

These salt flat contains large amount of saturated brine. These saturated brine is enriched with large amounts of sodium, potassium, lithium and magnesium as well as borax. In these substances, the lithium got a large commercial value as it is widly use in batteries. However the extraction of these substances were stopped because of certain communal issues.