Lithium Ponds of Chile's Salar de Atacama

  • Released Tuesday, April 28, 2026
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Chile’s largest salt flat, Salar de Atacama, produces a significant portion of the global lithium supply. The desert receives just millimeters of rain annually, making it one of the driest places on Earth. Local mines harness the harsh desert sun to evaporate underground brines to access lithium. This HLS (Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2) sequence showcases shifting colors as water slowly vanishes to concentrate the critical mineral.

A natural-color HLS time series of Chile’s Salar de Atacama spanning from March 3, 2025 to February 21, 2026, revealing the evaporation and shifting colors of its lithium ponds over time.

Credits

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Datasets used

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This page was originally published on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 2:36 PM EDT.