Picture of the Day: World’s Largest Reflection Pool

 

WORLD’S LARGEST REFLECTION POOL

 

Photograph by Kuroiniisan on Wikimedia Commons

 

When it rains at Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni (the world’s largest salt flat), the landscape transforms into a giant and shallow reflection pool. And if you happen to capture the phenomenon at sunset, you get a beautiful photograph like this.

At 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi) and 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above mean sea level, Salar de Uyuni is unlike any other place in the world. Equally extraordinary is the salt flat’s ‘flatness’. Over the entire 10,582 square kilometers, there is only an average altitude variation of one meter. [Source]

The area is covered in a several-meter thick salt crust which also covers a pool of lithium-rich brine. In fact, the area is so rich in lithium, 50-70% of the world’s reserves can be found here. One final tidbit: the large area, clear skies and exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites. How cool is that! [Source]

 

via Kuroiniisan on Wikimedia Commons

 

 

This 300 ft Wall in Bolivia has over 5000 Dinosaur Footprints

Photograph by Ramon Kristian Arellano

 

Located 5 km (3 miles) from downtown Sucre, Bolivia is Cal Orko, an imposing limestone slab 1.5 km (0.9 miles) long and over 100 meters high (328 ft). On this steep face (inclination of 72 degrees), visitors can peer through time to when dinosaurs roamed the Earth over 68 million years ago.

At Cal Orko you will find 462 distinct dinosaur tracks from at least 8 different species, totaling an incredible 5,055 individual dinosaur footprints. So how do thousands of dinosaur footprints come to be, on a seemingly vertical rock face hundreds of feet high? You’ll have to scroll down to find out.

 

Photograph by Yatlik.com

 

Photograph by Carsten Drossel

 

Cal Orko: A Paleontologist’s Dream… Inside a Quarry

 
Believe it or not, Cal Orko is situated entirely within a limestone quarry owned by FANCESA, Bolivia’s National Cement Factory. Located in the ‘El Molino’ formation, the sight of heavy mining machinery (one could argue they are today’s ‘land giants’) set against a backdrop of 68 million-year-old dinosaur footprints (Earth’s prehistoric ‘land giants’) creates an intriguing parallel.

Further up the hill is Parque Cretácico. Opened in 2006, the dinosaur museum features 24 life-sized dinosaur replicas, various exhibitions, and a viewing platform 150 meters (~500 ft) from the rock face. It’s from this vantage point that you truly grasp the sheer scale and magnitude of Cal Orko.

 

Photograph by Gerardo Diego Ontiveros

 

Photograph by Ryan Greenberg

 

So Dinosaurs Can Climb Walls Now?

 
Not quite. We’re looking at something 68 million years in the making. The footprints at this site were formed during the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous Period in the Mesozoic Era. As Ian Belcher of The Guardian explains:

“It was unique climate fluctuations that made the region a palaeontological honey pot. The creatures’ feet sank into the soft shoreline in warm damp weather, leaving marks that were solidified by later periods of drought. Wet weather then returned, sealing the prints below mud and sediment. The wet-dry pattern was repeated seven times, preserving multiple layers of prints. The cherry on the cake was added when tectonic activity pushed the flat ground up to a brilliant viewing angle – as if nature was aware of its tourism potential.”

 

Photograph by Éamonn Lawlor

 

Photograph by Jerry Daykin

 

Cal Orko is one of the few locations in the world where you will find a concentration of footprints from a wide variety of dinosaurs that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period. The sheer size, geological significance, biodiversity and social behaviour that can be studied here makes Cal Orko a special place.
 
Take the trail of Johnny Walker for example. Johnny Walker was the name given to a baby Tyrannosaurus rex whose 367 meter (~1200 ft) path can be traced and observed here.

 

Photograph by Vincent Poulissen

 

Photograph by Jerry Daykin

 

Sources

– The Guardian: Dinosaur tracking in Bolivia
– Parque Cretacio
– The Earth Story on Facebook
– DonTago on Reddit

 

 

 

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Picture of the Day: Sunset in La Paz

 

SUNSET IN LA PAZ

 

Photograph by PEDRO SZEKELY

 

In this photograph by Pedro Szekely we see the city of La Paz, the second largest city in Bolivia after Santa Cruz. It is located in the western part of the country at an elevation of roughly 3,650 m (11,975 ft) above sea level, making it the world’s highest de facto capital city, or administrative capital, with Quito, Ecuador, being the highest legal capital.

Overlooking the city is the triple-peaked Illimani moutain, which is always snow-covered and can be seen from several spots of the city. [Source]

In the Flickr photo description, Szekely describes his thoughts as he arrived in La Paz for the first time:

“Arriving to La Paz by land is quite an experience. La Paz is in a valley, but it overflowed into the Altiplano. In South America, the outskirts of the big cities are very poor. The peasants coming from the countryside looking for jobs settle there. So, your first contact with La Paz is quite shocking, as you see the extreme poverty of the people who live there.
 
The bus then winds down the road into the very crowded La Paz. The streets are narrow and lined with little stores that sell everything, the traffic and pollution are horrible, and there are lots of people. It is picturesque but unsettling. I live in Los Angeles, but I am from Colombia and I have seen my share of poverty. La Paz is something else.

 

via Pedro Szekely on Flickr

 

 

 

Picture of the Day: Isla Del Sol, Bolivia

 

ISLA DEL SOL, BOLIVIA

 

Photograph by LOUIS BIRKS

 

If you look closely, you’ll notice a tiny fishing hut at the bottom right. The hut is located on Isla Del Sol on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.

Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) is an island in the southern part of Lake Titicaca. Geographically, the terrain is harsh; it is a rocky, hilly island with many eucalyptus trees. There are no motor vehicles or paved roads on the island. The main economic activity of the approximately 800 families on the island is farming, with fishing and tourism augmenting the subsistence economy.

 

Louis Birks @ cabinporn.com