“I’m actually optimistic that this upcoming year, if we have a really nice, hot summer that evaporates all the brine, will be good for racing,” Bernau said.Īs for the photo opportunities out at the flats, Bernau said even with the flooding, they’re still there. The water will go, but the salt will stay. “Having a wetter climate, or more rainfall, is better for the long-term health of the salt crust,” he said. He said having this much water at the Salt Flats is a great thing to see. “What is most likely to lead to a racing event being cancelled is if we have a rainfall occurring in the summer,” Bernau said. Visitors still flock to the Salt Flats, but the unusually high water makes some people, particularly those in the racing community, nervous.

Watch at 10 for some stunning images of the Salt Flats, and what scientists says all this water means for racing, photography and other recreation.

We took a trip out there in to get a closer look. Plans to link this remote area to the modern world via new infrastructure are underway, with the mineral wealth hidden beneath this pristine reflective surface leading some to predict Bolivia will be ‘the Saudi Arabia of the 21st century’.“All that salt that dissolves when we have all this rain, it’s not going anywhere,” Bernau said. The region is believed to contain the biggest store of lithium in the world – in demand for its use in lightweight batteries. But now the Bolivian government has ambitious plans for mineral extraction that will bring big changes to the isolated landscape. But, come the rainy season (roughly November to April), it is often covered with a shallow layer of water, which makes it hard to tell where land ends and the sky begins.įor years, only intrepid tourists and saleros (salt gatherers) have made it to this remote place. It is almost 100 times larger than the famous Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, and so flat that NASA uses its surface to calibrate sensors on board satellites.ĭuring the dry season, from May to October, the surface crust of sodium chloride – more than 10m deep in places – is parched and cracked and looks as though it belongs on another planet. The 12,000sq km salt-encrusted prehistoric lakebed is located in Potosi, southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,660m above sea level.

Utah salt flats