Río Grande de Lipez

BW

The Río Grande de Lípez is a endorheischer River in the department of Potosí in the Andes mountains of southern Bolivia.

The river has a total length of 153 kilometers, and has its origin at the confluence of the two rivers Río Salado and Río Guadalupe in the canton of San Antonio de Lípez district ( bolivian: Municipio) San Pablo de Lípez in the province Sur Lípez. The source region of the river lies at an altitude of 3,900 m in the mountains of the Cordillera de Lípez.

The Río Grande de Lípez flows from south to north by the municipality of Colcha "K" in the province of Nor Lípez past the towns of San Cristobal and Río Grande, but otherwise. Largely through uninhabited areas After 153 kilometers, it flows into a up to twenty -kilometer-wide crater in the Salar de Uyuni (also Salar de Tunupa ), with more than 10,000 km ² of the largest salt lake in the world.

The region suffers through much of the year under very dry conditions, the annual precipitation is 150 mm very low (see climate chart San Antonio de Lípez ): he has from April to October, less than 5 mm monthly average in, only in the Südsommermonaten November fall to March significant rainfall, so that the Río Grande de Lípez and its tributaries only periodically water lead. Despite a low mean annual temperature just above the freezing point can be found due to its proximity to the equator during the day a high solar radiation, so that the average daily maximum temperature is in the course of 6-11 ° C; it arises in the midday hours a higher than average evaporation and the proportion of mineral salts dissolved in the water increases, resulting, for example, the name of the source river Río Salado ( Salt River dt ) can be explained.

In addition, scientific studies show the last few decades that a significant part of the surface water is not from the scanty rainfall in the region, but the deep water of water- bearing rock layers that have accumulated there over the past year tens of thousands. A study by I. Chaffaut assumes that more than 90 percent of the surface water comes from these deep-water reservoirs and is irretrievably lost by surface run-off.