Titicaca and Uyuni the highest system of lakes and salt flats in the world

In this presentation we are going to talk about a unique place in the world, a gigantic freshwater lake, traversed by boats and canoes that has housed human populations for millennia. But this lake is not the only element of this aquatic and saline mega-landscape, there are also large plains covered with salt, one of which contains the largest salt flat in the world.

It is a semi-arid and arid place, more than 3,500 meters above sea level, with little oxygen, difficult for agricultural production, with very strong solar radiation and very cold temperatures at night.

We will present this topic in three successive installments. First of all we will refer to the characteristics of the Titicaca-Uyuni hydrological system.

This system, the Titicaca-Uyuni hydrological system, is located in the Andean highlands, located in the territories of Peru and Bolivia,

It comprises a sequence of lakes and salt flats that begin receiving fresh water in the Lake Titicaca basin to the north and drain to the south through a river known as the Desaguadero River. These waters experience a gradual increase in salinity, forming temporary brackish lakes associated with salt flats to the extreme south.

Lake Titicaca is the largest freshwater lake in the world whose elevation above sea level exceeds 3,800 meters, with altitudes in its basin greater than 6,500 meters.

The area of ​​the receiving basin of Titicaca is 56,300 km2; of this area, three quarters are in Peru and the rest in Bolivia. As I said before, the lake itself has a surface area of ​​8,400 km² and a volume greater than 900,000 million m³.

The Titicaca receives 201 m³/s from its tributaries and 252 m³/s directly from the rain on the lake. In other words, it receives a total of 453 m³/s.

According to calculations by the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, evaporation is 415 m³/s, which means that in a normal year the surplus is 38 m³/s, which is evacuated through the Desaguadero River.

This river, during its course, receives the contribution of other water courses and a large amount of sediment, which, added to the low slope of the land, ends up forming large accumulation plains in its lower course. In this place the river divides into two branches, one of them forms a brackish flood lake called Uru Uru that is temporary located at 3695 meters of altitude. Both the drainage of Lake Uru Uru and the second branch of the Desaguadero drain southward forming another larger lake: Lake Poopó. Lake Poopó, with a high salt content, which in a large part of its surface is a true salt flat, is located at an altitude of 3,686 meters.

The Lake Poopó basin itself is 24,829 km², with an annual rainfall of less than 300 mm. Lake Poopó drains through the Laca Jauría River from the extreme south heading NW to the Salar de Coipasa.

This salt flat is located at an altitude of 3657 meters. Coipasa also receives the contribution of the Lauca River, forming an extensive surface of salt water and salt flats of 2,210 km2 and a maximum thickness of about 100 meters.

The Coipasa salt flat empties into another larger salt flat, the Uyuni salt flat through the course of brackish water called the Negrojahuira ravine.

The Salar de Uyuni is the largest and highest continuous salt desert in the world, with an area of ​​10,582 km². It is located at about 3650 m a.s.l. n. m. and it contains an important reserve of various minerals, among which are lithium salts, considered of great value, and potassium, boron and magnesium. One of the next videos in this sequence will be dedicated specifically to the Salar de Uyuni.