Pink Salt Lake
© Addictive Creative/Shutterstock
Pool of pink
Though it does lie at the base of a volcano, that's not a pool of lava we're seeing. Flanked by vast, dry salt pans below the volcanic cone that shares its name, Laguna Carachi Pampa is a hypersaline lake on the Puna de Atacama, an expansive, arid plateau in central South America that's often compared to the surface of Mars. Unlike the Red Planet, this place is known to support life: The lake's red-hot coloration comes from microorganisms it hosts in its hypersaline waters. Larger life also finds ways to thrive here, such as flamingos that use it as a breeding ground—how's that for color coordination?
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