Poopó Lake
Also known as Poopo Lake, Poopo
salt lake in Bolivia
AI overview
Poopó Lake is a salt lake located in Bolivia that was once one of the country's largest bodies of water. It has significant importance to the region's ecology and the communities that depend on it, though it has faced serious environmental challenges in recent decades.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Location
- Altiplano
- Type
- Endorheic salt lake
- Primary inflows
- River Desaguadero
- Primary outflows
- evaporation
- Catchment area
- 27,700 km (10,700 sq mi)
- Basin countries
- Bolivia
- Surface area
- 1,000 km (390 sq mi)
- Average depth
- >1 m (3 ft 3 in)
- Surface elevation
- 3,686 m (12,093 ft)
- Settlements
- Oruro , Challapata
- Official name
- Lagos Poopó y Uru Uru
- Designated
- 11 July 2002
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
The top photo shows the lake with low water levels, exposing large tracts of salt and mud flats. Rainfall afterwards resulted in flooding of Poopó with muddy waters from the Desaguadero River. The lower photo shows the extent of flooding of the western salt flats, sufficient to create an ephemeral island – as shown by the rectangle.
Lake Poopó (Spanish: Lago Poopó Spanish: [ˈlaɣo po.oˈpo]) is a large saline lake in a shallow depression in the Altiplano in Oruro Department, Bolivia, at an altitude of approximately 3,700 m (12,100 ft). Due to the lake's length and width (90 by 32 km; 56 by 20 mi), it made up the eastern half of Oruro, known as a mining region in southwest Bolivia. The permanent part of the lake body covered approximately 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi) and it was the second-largest lake in the country. The lake received most of its water from the Desaguadero River, which flows from Lake Titicaca at the north end of the Altiplano. Since the lake lacked any major outlet and had a mean depth of less than 3 m (10 ft), the surface area differed greatly seasonally.