![]() This cycle of filling and drying left behind a meters thick even layer of salts that are distributed so evenly that NASA uses them to calibrate the altimeters of Earth observation satellites. In Utah, that prehistoric lake was Lake Bonneville and it used to cover over half of Utah. ![]() Salt flats are formed where prehistoric lake beds have filled and dried millions of times over the course of eons. At night, it is truly stellar, in every sense of the word.Me, being a complete dork on the Bonneville Salt Flats. ![]() Perhaps the most memorable sight among many is in the rainy season when a thin layer of water covers the flats, transforming them into what the locals call “the world’s largest mirror”, as it reflects the sky. Around 70% of the world’s entire reserves are here: for “white gold” read “grey gold”. Salt deposits can be up to 33ft deep and there are an estimated 10 billion tonnes of it.īut the real treasure is the lithium, the light metal used in laptop, smartphone and electric car batteries. If you like savage beauty, this is your place. The largest salt flat on the planet is not just a whopping 4,086 square miles (not quite the size of Wales, the universal media measure of area, but still quite large), it also sits on the Altiplano at a dizzying 11,995ft above sea level and is one of the most spectacular, unforgettable sights in South America, with colourful lakes, bubbling geysers and dramatic rock formations.
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