Salar de Pedernales is a large salt flat in the Atacama Region of Chile. It lies east of the Cordillera Domeyko at an elevation of 3,370 metres (11,060 ft). The salt flat has an irregular shape and consists mostly of gypsum and rock salt, with an area of 0.6 square kilometres (0.23 sq mi)-1.1 square kilometres (0.42 sq mi) covered by open water. During the late Pleistocene, the climate was wetter and thus open water covered a much larger area of Salar de Pedernales.

Lake Tauca is a former lake in the Altiplano of Bolivia. It is also known as Lake Pocoyu for its constituent lakes: Lake Poopó, Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni. The lake covered large parts of the southern Altiplano between the Eastern Cordillera and the Western Cordillera, covering an estimated 48,000 to 80,000 square kilometres of the basins of present-day Lake Poopó and the Salars of Uyuni, Coipasa and adjacent basins. Water levels varied, possibly reaching 3,800 metres (12,500 ft) in altitude. The lake was saline. The lake received water from Lake Titicaca, but whether this contributed most of Tauca's water or only a small amount is controversial; the quantity was sufficient to influence the local climate and depress the underlying terrain with its weight. Diatoms, plants and animals developed in the lake, sometimes forming reef knolls.