Salt production in the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is shown below. Similar salty springs can be found in other parts of the Andes Mountains, and salt deposits are common in the dried-up remains of the giant Pleistocene lakes that once covered the high Altiplano plateau. The rate of water flow in the spring is constant throughout the year, so nearby Lake Huaypo is probably adding more saltwater into the groundwater system through seepage. Today, this salt leaches into the groundwater that is being discharged in the spring at Maras. Tens of millions of years ago a section of this ocean was isolated inland, where the water slowly evaporated, leaving rich salt deposits in the muddy sediments below. The spring that feeds the Maras salt ponds is 8 to 9 times saltier than seawater and originates from hypersaline rocks that were once beneath an ocean. The value of salt for seasoning and to preserve food has made it a valuable resource and trading commodity throughout human history manufacturing salt is among the oldest chemical industries. Those who live primarily on grains and vegetables, however, need to add salt to their diets. The salt in animal tissues, such as meat, milk, and blood, provides this essential mineral to people who live exclusively on meat. Known as Maras, and originating from a saline spring, these salt ponds have been tended carefully since Inca times, and possibly for hundreds of years before the Incas. Small salt ponds numbering in the thousands are arranged on steep mountain slopes near the city of Cusco, former capital of the Inca Empire, high in the Andes Mountains of Peru.
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