Peruvian Salt Pans, Peru - BBC World Wonders

The Andes mountains host large ore and salt deposits and some of its eastern fold and thrust belt acts as traps for commercially exploitable amounts of hydrocarbons. In the forelands of the Atacama desert some of the largest porphyry copper mineralizations occurs making Chile and Peru the 1st and 2nd largest exporters of copper in the world. Porphyry copper in the western slopes of the Andes has been generated by fluids (mostly water) during the cooling of plutons. The porphyry mineralization further benefited from the dry climate that let them largely out of the disturbing actions of meteoric water. The dry climate in the central western Andes have also led to the creation of extensive saltpeter deposits which were extensively mined until the invention of synthetic nitrates.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• bbc
• world
• wonders
• earth
• bbmg
• motion
• gallery
• documentary
• doc
• amazing
• beautiful
• stunning
• big
• ben
• england
• uk
• albi
• france
• angkhor
• wat
• baku
• great
• wall
• china
• damascus
• syria
• pyrmaids
• eygpt
• statue
• of
• liberty
• usa
• america
• golden
• temple
• jerusalem
• israel
• tokapi
• turkey
• istanbul
• machu
• picchu
• peru
• mountains
• minaret
• church
• cathedral
• mosque
• moscow
• russia
• brazil
• dubai
• india

[dvrii]

This was fascinating!