People have performed amazing feats of construction, from erecting skyrises that soar well over 800 metres into the sky to building some of the world’s biggest storage spaces, like the underground SubTropolis, which spans 4.5 square kilometres. However, nothing we build can compare with the staggering size of nature’s own storage spaces.

 

Salar de Uyuni: World’s largest salt flat

Salar de Uyuni

Did you know that Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, contains an estimated 10 billion tonnes of salt?

 

Located in Bolivia, the Salar de Uyuni also contains over 50% of the world’s lithium, which we use in lithium batteries. It’s remarkably flat, with an altitude that doesn’t vary by more than 100 centimetres across its full distance of 10,582 square kilometres. When it rains, the flats turn into an incredible, giant mirror.

 

Lake Baikal: World’s biggest fresh-water lake

Lake Baikal

Moving from salt to water, Russia’s Lake Baikal isn’t just any lake. This lake is roughly the size of Denmark and Belgium combined, and it stores an estimated 20% of the world’s surface fresh water. The distance around the lake is over 2,000 kilometres.

 

Lake Baikal is thought to be one of the world’s oldest lakes, dating back 25 to 30 million years. It’s fed by a total of 336 rivers. As well as being the largest by water volume, it has the deepest and clearest water of any lake on the planet. In 1996, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

Ring of Fire

Krakatoa

In the Pacific, the Ring of Fire contains 542 volcanoes – or over 75% of all the world’s active volcanoes. Feared but spectacular volcanoes Krakatoa, Mount Ruapeho and Mount Mayon are all in the Ring of Fire. And did you know Japan’s Mount Fuji is in the ring too?

 

Forming a 40,000-kilometre arc around the Pacific, the Ring of Fire runs from the bottom of South America right up to the Bering Strait, across and down through Japan, and finally to New Zealand.

 

Antarctica: biggest store of fresh water

Antarctica

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. It might surprise you to know that because it gets so little rain, Antarctica is actually considered a desert. Nonetheless, it includes about 90% of the world’s ice, making it the largest store of fresh water on Earth.

 

The coldest temperature ever recorded, −89.2 °Celsius, was in Antarctica at Vostok Station, in 1983.

 

The Sahara: world’s biggest store of complete quiet!

Sahara

The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert. It spans over 9.4 million miles, making it close in size to China, and includes sand dunes that reach as high as 180 metres.

 

XtraSpace Storage

XtraSpace self-storage units in Edenvale

Our business at XtraSpace is storage on a smaller scale! We offer affordable storage space with convenient lease terms at branches throughout South Africa. If you’re looking for a personal or business storage solution, contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

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