Salar de Pajonales

Italy

Salar de Pajonales is a playa in the southern Atacama Region of Chile and the third-largest in that country, behind Salar de Punta Negra and Salar de Atacama. It consists mostly of a gypsum crust; only a small portion of its area is covered with water. During the late Pleistocene, Salar de Pajonales

formed an actual lake that has left shoreline features. The climate in the region is arid and windy, with high insolation and low atmospheric pressure. The extreme environmental conditions have drawn comparisons to Mars, and Salar de Pajonales has been used as an analogue for Martian environments.

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