The 1.3 Trillion Dollar Mirror of Riches; Bolivia's Unusual Lithium Rich Salt Flats
Bolivia contains the world's largest natural mirror, with this geologic oddity containing more than 1.3 trillion dollars worth of lithium. This is the story of Salar de Uyuni, which currently holds 9 million metric tons of lithium and 1.5 million metric tons of boron. A combination of erosion and felsic volcanic rocks aided in the generation of this brine related salt flat deposit. Thumbnail Photo Credit: This work "SalardeUyuni1", is a derivative of a photo (resized, cropped, text overlay, overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border and the GeologyHub logo)) from "at Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia)", by: Sasha India, sasha-india, 2017, Posted on Flickr, Flickr account link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sasha-i..., Photo link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sasha-i..., CC BY 2.0. "SalardeUyuni1" is used & licensed under CC BY 2.0 by / geologyhub If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: / geologyhub ) (YouTube membership: / @geologyhub ) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image: CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Sources/Citations: [1] Nunnery, J. & Fritz, Sherilyn & Baker, Paul & Salenbien, Wout. (2018). Lake-level variability in Salar de Coipasa, Bolivia during the past ∼40,000 yr. Quaternary Research. 91. 1-11. 10.1017/qua.2018.108., CC BY 4.0. This paper was used to trace the approximate outline of one of the Pleistocene era lakes that preceded the modern Salar de Uyuni. [2] Glen Fergus, 2015, Article link: http://gergs.net/all_palaeotemps/, Photo link: https://i0.wp.com/gergs.net/wp-conten..., CC BY 4.0 [3] Alaska Volcano Observatory [4] Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys [5] U.S. Geological Survey 0:00 A Supermassive Salt Flat 0:54 A Large Mirror 2:33 Lithium Source 3:25 Lake Growth 4:04 Conclusion
