Some 250 million years ago, a part of Ukraine was under a shallow ocean. When the ocean dried up, it left behind a huge deposit of salt.
In 1959 it was the centre of project Military Atomic Energy Authority operation orpheus investigating the possibility of masking the seismic signal given out by underground nuclear tests.
Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat located in the Potosà and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia.