Chemical composition and distribution of lithium-rich brines in salar de Uyuni and nearby salars in southwestern Bolivia

Ericksen, George E.; Vine, James David; Ballon, A Raul

doi:10.1016/0360-5442(78)90032-4

Cited by 41 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…They can reach concentrations of several grams per liter in brines (Moraga et al 1974;Ericksen et al 1978;Risacher 1984;Risacher and Fritz 1991a). Lithium is extracted from salar de Atacama brine.…”

Section: Origin Of Lithium and Boronmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of Salts and Brine Evolution of Bolivian and Chilean Salars

2008

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Central Andes in Bolivia and northern Chile contain numerous internal drainage basins occupied by saline lakes and salt crusts (salars). Salts in inflow waters stem from two origins: alteration of volcanic rocks, which produces dilute waters, and brine recycling, which leads to brackish waters. Chilean alteration waters are three times more concentrated in average than Bolivian waters, which is related to a higher sulfur content in Chilean volcanoes. Brackish inflows stem from brines which leak out from present salars and mix with dilute groundwater. Most of the incoming salts are recycled salts. The cycling process is likely to have begun when ancient salars were buried by volcanic eruptions. Three major brine groups are found in Andean salars: alkaline, sulfate-rich, and calciumrich brines. Evaporation modeling of inflows shows good agreement between predicted and observed brines in Chile. Alkaline salars are completely lacking in Chile, which is accounted for by higher sulfate and lower alkalinity of inflow waters, in turn related to the suspected higher sulfur content in Chilean volcanic rocks. Six Bolivian salars are alkaline, a lower number than that predicted by evaporative modeling. Deposition on the drainage basin of eolian sulfur eroded from native deposits shifts the initial alkaline evolution to sulfate brines. The occurrence of calcium-rich brines in Andean salars is not compatible with volcanic drainage basins, which can only produce alkaline or sulfate-rich weathering waters. The discrepancy is likely due to recycled calcic brines from ancient salars in sedimentary basins, now buried below volcanic formations. Calcic salars are not in equilibrium with their volcanic environment and may slowly change with time to sulfate-rich salars.

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Section: Origin Of Lithium and Boronmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of Salts and Brine Evolution of Bolivian and Chilean Salars

2008

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“…The latter is an attractive solution as extracting lithium from seawater requires only a trivial amount of energy in theory-1.2 kWh/kg-to go from an ocean concentration to a two per cent solution [59]. Less questionable is the impact of lithium extraction on Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, which constitutes half of the global lithium reserves on Earth [60,61]. The lithium mines compete with quinoa farmers for scarce freshwater supplies as the current water use at 10 kt/year production is larger than the recharge rate of the basin [62].…”

Section: Zero Eyes Open: Turning a Blind Eye To Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Services with Both Eyes Wide Open

et al. 2017

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Abstract:Energy has been at the forefront of the sustainable development discourse for quite some time as policymakers, industry heads and society at large have taken progressive steps to cut carbon via renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. Unfortunately, some of these methods have given rise to perverse socio-environmental effects; as materials have been unnecessarily sacrificed, mines and wells have opened and plantations grown, in the name of energy saving. This paper contributes to clean energy-orientated policies and practices by exploring the discipline of sustainable materials. We first review two strategies: energy efficiency linked to materials; and material efficiency, meaning "doing more with less." We find that, although both contribute significantly, they are hampered by the rebound effect and their focus on "doing less bad" rather than "good". Furthermore, they do not in themselves evaluate the services and societal wellbeing that materials provide. We then define "material services" and propose a wider strategy that encompasses and enhances the previous two. Under the new strategy, we argue that sustainable materials should be considered as those that do no harm and which optimally, through the services provided, contribute to better sustainable development policies and practices.

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“…The largescale and long-term net effect of a---120 m deglacial rise in sea-level is to depress the ocean basins relative to the continents by --,40 m. Interpretation of relative sea-level histories requires accurate computation of deflection at the coastline (Peltier, 1976 Risacher and Fritts (1991) recently presented evidence for regular variations in thickness of the upper salt layer in the Salar de Uyuni, which presently contains most of the salt delivered to lake Minchin by its tributary rivers during the last deep-lake cycle. The top of the salt unit is maintained as a level surface by annual episodes of rewetting and hydroaeolian planation (Ericksen et al, 1978;Currey, 1990). The bottom of the salt unit occurs at depths that increase nearly linearly from <1 m on the west margin to ~10 m near the east edge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydro‐isostatic deflection and tectonic tilting in the central Andes: Initial results of a GPS survey of Lake Minchin shorelines

Bills¹,

Silva²,

Currey³

et al. 1994

Geophysical Research Letters

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Sufficiently large lake loads provide a means of probing rheological stratification of the crust and upper mantle. Lake Minchin was the largest of the late Pleistocene pluvial lakes in the central Andes. Prominent shorelines, which formed during temporary still‐stands in the climatically driven lake level history, preserve records of lateral variations in subsequent net vertical motions. At its maximum extent the lake was 140 m deep and spanned 400 km N‐S and 200 km E‐W. The load of surficial water contained in Lake Minchin was sufficient to depress the crust and underlying mantle by 20–40 m, depending on the subjacent rheology. Any other differential vertical motions will also be recorded as departures from horizontality of the shorelines. We recently conducted a survey of shoreline elevations of Lake Minchin with the express intent of monitoring the hydro‐isostatic deflection and tectonic tilting. Using real‐time differential GPS, we measured topographic profiles across suites of shorelines at 15 widely separated locations throughout the basin. Horizontal and vertical accuracies attained are roughly 30 and 70 cm, respectively. Geomorphic evidence suggests that the highest shoreline was occupied only briefly (probably less than 200 years) and radiocarbon dates on gastropod shells found in association with the shore deposits constrain the age to roughly 17 kyr. The basin‐wide pattern of elevations of the highest shoreline is composed of two distinct signals: (27±1) m of hydro‐isostatic deflection due to the lake load, and a planar tilt with east and north components of (6.8±0.4) 10−5 and (−5.3±0.3) 10−5. This rate of tilting is too high to be plausibly attributed to steady tectonism, and presumably reflects some unresolved combination of tectonism plus the effects of oceanic and lacustrine loads on a laterally heterogeneous substrate. The history of lake level fluctuations is still inadequately known to allow detailed inferences of crust and mantle rheology. However, it is already clear that the effective elastic plate thickness is closer to 40 km than the 60–70 km crustal thickness in the central Andes and the effective viscosity is less than 5 1020 Pa s.

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Chemical composition and distribution of lithium-rich brines in salar de Uyuni and nearby salars in southwestern Bolivia

Cited by 41 publications

References 0 publications

Origin of Salts and Brine Evolution of Bolivian and Chilean Salars

Origin of Salts and Brine Evolution of Bolivian and Chilean Salars

Material Services with Both Eyes Wide Open

Hydro‐isostatic deflection and tectonic tilting in the central Andes: Initial results of a GPS survey of Lake Minchin shorelines

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