Quaternary geochemical evolution of the salars of Uyuni and Coipasa, Central Altiplano, Bolivia

The central trough of the Bolivian Altiplano is occupied by two wide salt crusts: the salar of Uyuni, which is probably the largest salt pan in the world (10,000 km²) and the salar of Coipasa (2,500 km²). Both crusts are essentially made of porous halite filled with an interstitial brine very rich in Li, K, Mg, B (up to 4.7 g/l Li, 4.3 g/l B, 30 g/l K and 75 g/l Mg). Lithium reserves are the highest known in the world, around 9 × 10⁶ tons. Potassium, magnesium and boron reserves in brines are also important (around 194 × 10⁶ tons K, 8 × 10⁶ tons B and 211 × 10⁶ tons Mg).

The crusts are the remnant of saline Lake Tauca (13,000–10,000 yr BP). Its salinity was estimated approximately at 80 g/l. Its paleochemistry was derived in two ways: (1) by dissolving the present amounts of all chemical components in the former lake volume, and (2) by simulating the evaporation of the major inflows to the basin. The resulting chemical compositions are quite different. The dissolution-derived one is 5 to 50 times less concentrated in Li, K, Mg, B than the evaporation-simulated ones. However all compositions present the same Na and Cl contents. This suggests either a removal of bittern salts or an enrichment of the former lake water in Na and Cl.

The most probable interpretation is that Lake Tauca redissolved a salt crust akin to that existing today. Several older lakes have been detected on the Altiplano. Nevertheless, such an explanation only pushes the problem back. It is likely that the anomaly was transferred from one lake to an other. Three hypotheses may be put forward: (1) bittern seepage through bottom sediments, (2) uptake of the missing components by minerals, and (3) leaching of ancient evaporites from the catchment area at the beginning of the lacustrine history of the basin. The excess halite could have been recycled from lake to lake. This latter process seems to be the most effective to explain the large excess of Na and Cl over the bittern solutes — Li, K, Mg and B. The occurrence of almost pure Na/1bCl saline springs flowing out from a gypsum diapir in the northern Altiplano gives substantial support to this hypothesis.