Lake Poopo: description and photo

Lake Poopo is the miracle of our planet. It is located high in the mountains of South America, in the territory of modern Bolivia. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is salty, and the flora and fauna of this reservoir are filled with amazing inhabitants. How did such an amazing lake form in the Andes? How does it look now?

Education Popo

When the last ice age ended and the secular ice began to melt, in the mountainous part of South America a huge glacial lake, Ballivian, was formed. Gradually it dried up and about 11 thousand years ago it broke up into several reservoirs. The largest of them, existing and currently is the famous Titicaca, attracting tourists from all over the world. The second largest was Poopo Lake.

After the fall in sea level, the reservoir was left without a natural connection with the world's oceans. It became drainless, and its filling depended only on the level of precipitation. Desaguadero - the only river connecting the waters of Poopo with the outside world - flows from the huge Titicaca and flows into Poopo.

Where is the lake?

Popo can be seen on the map of South America. The geographical coordinates of this place are: 18 ° 46'55 "S. Ш., 67 ° 01'29 "з. Etc. Height above sea level is 3700 meters. Like many other lakes in South America, Poopo represents a special geological formation, created by nature on the site of the former seabed. The rapid emergence of the Andean ridge raised Poopo to an unattainable height - so the lake turned out to be isolated from the outside world.

Hydrology

The composition of the water in the pond is unique - an abnormally high salt content makes it unsuitable for drinking or use on the farm. The concentration of salt solution becomes prohibitive in the period of drought and high air temperature. But in the northern part of the reservoir there is a small area with fresh water - this is the place where the Desaguadero River flows. In the rest, the level of salt concentration fluctuates between "high" and "very high".

The salt content of the lake water is a variable. Perhaps in one place it will be extremely high, in the other - it will not go beyond the usual parameters. According to observations, during the two spring months (October-November) the difference in salt concentration between the northern and southern part of Poopo was 300%.

The second significant factor affecting the salinity index of the lake is the nearby deposits of minerals and solonchaks that remained after the ancient lake of Ballivyan. Depending on the weather conditions, solonchak pieces can freely wash out from the rock, making the salt solution concentration in the Poopo waters even higher.

Flora and fauna

In the waters of the lake, unique fish breeds are perfectly well-behaved: Mauri catfish, Ispy, Karache. In the middle of the twentieth century, ichthyologists started the process of breeding Atlantic atherin and rainbow trout. Thanks to the efforts of scientists, the lake of Bolivia Poopo is a source of fishing for the inhabitants of nearby villages and villages: fish from it are caught, eaten and offered for sale.

Another feature makes Poopo particularly attractive for tourists. Every year thousands of migratory birds find temporary shelter on the banks of this reservoir. With the onset of the season, tourists can observe more than thirty species of migratory birds and up to a dozen species of local birds. Lake Poopo is the only habitat of the Andean seagull, Bird's Bird, Andean condor, and several other endemic species that are rightfully included in the international Red Data Book. In addition, tourists can enjoy the unique spectacle of unique flamingos Lake Poopo. Photos of these amazing birds often adorn the pages of periodicals about nature.

The plant world is represented by various shrubs, herbs, cacti. The main attraction of the world of Popo can be called several kinds of prickly pears, many of which during the flowering period are really beautiful.

Unknown story

Not far from the Poopo coast, rough-hewn stone blocks are clearly visible. Their origin is the work of human hands, because each side of the block is smooth, and the shape of the stone is very close to the correct parallelepiped. Similar blocks of artificial origin were to the east of Lake Titicaca. As far as we know, serious archaeological investigations have not been conducted in this area, therefore the nature of the mysterious blocks remains a mystery.

Now on the shores of Lake Poopo live ordinary people, most of whom work in mines - in this area quite a lot of minerals. But the quality of life in this area is much lower than the average in the Latin American region. The level of legal and medical care is one of the lowest in the country, and the average life expectancy is only 58 years. And it's not just because of hard physical work. In addition to the high salt content, Lake Poopo surprises with a large concentration of heavy metals - arsenic, zinc, cadmium turn the lake's water into an explosive mixture, from the poisoning of which people quickly die. Even imported fresh water does not help - in a drought period, pairs of lakes along with air penetrate the lungs of people living here. Heavy metals settle in the body, causing rapid death. The poison also penetrates through the stomach: the fish living in the lake is simply impregnated with heavy metals. Therefore, no one is in a hurry to settle in this region.

Drying of the lake

In early 2016, scientists of the European space agency sounded the alarm - Lake Poopo evaporated, disappeared from the map of the world. Analysis of thousands of images taken from the satellite, confirmed a sad diagnosis - in the near future a unique lake Poopo may disappear from the face of the earth. The area of the water surface has decreased tenfold - from three hundred thousand square meters according to observations of 2014 to thirty-odd squares in January 2016. ESA scientists associate such a catastrophe with the problems of environmentalists in the area. The restoration of the lake, according to scientists, will take more than twenty years. And this is if the drought during this period does not come and will not restrain the growth of the water surface. Whether such forecasts will be justified will be shown by time.