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Lithium Mine - Chile
auteur: Nasa/Novapix
référence: t-sachi-00012
Image Size 300 DPI: 27 * 39 cm
With 29 percent of the world’s reserves, Chile’s Salar de Atacama is the world’s largest source of lithium. Companies pump brine to the surface and shunt it through a network of canals to shallow evaporation ponds lined with plastic. Then the region’s relentlessly dry, sunny, and windy weather evaporates the brine and leaves behind deposits of lithium and other salts. Color variations in the ponds are due to varying concentrations of salt in the water; lighter blue ponds have higher concentrations of lithium. The network of canals and hundreds of pumps around the evaporation ponds form the grid patterns around the clusters of ponds. This astronaut photograph was acquired in march 2016 from the International Space Station (ISS).
Contact : Stéphane Aubin +33-(0)9-51-26-53-76
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