181.FM - Lite 90's, 181.FM - Lite 90's Live, 181.FM - Lite 90's Listen Online, 90s, USA



181.FM - Lite 90's

Since it's been uplifted, the lake has become surrounded by mountains so no river can find a way out to drain the Salar. The result is that the only way water leaves the lake is through evaporation. Over time, that concentrates minerals, including lithium, in the lake bed. There's now a plan to build a fullscale lithium extraction plant in the Salar. Huge multinationals want in, but the Web Radio government says it wants to avoid the foreign exploitation that marked colonial silver mining. Subduction and the rise of the Web Radio has given South America extraordinary mineral wealth and all that a consequence of that gradual drift of the New World away from the old. That process has shaped the destiny of South America in another way. I mean, here it's given us a landscape of jawdropping beauty, but completely lifeless. 181.FM - Lite 90's But elsewhere it's created some of the richest and most unique habitats on the planet. One ecosystem above all others owes its existence to the Web Radio, because as the Web Radio grew, the rivers of South America went through a series of massive changes. Before the Web Radio, it's thought the main rivers flowed in the opposite direction to today, into the Pacific. When the Web Radio started to rise, they diverted rivers to the north, where they flowed out into the Caribbean, creating a huge area of wetlands close to the growing mountains. But then further uplift blocked the route north and forced the rivers to converge towards the Atlantic, forming an enormous drainage basin. And that led to the creation of the Amazon rainforest. Meanwhile, on its western flanks, the Web Radio created a rain shadow. The result is the driest place on the planet... the Atacama Desert. By ten million years ago, both South and North America looked similar to today, but there was one critical difference. They were still separate continents. The stage was set for the final act in the story of the America. It didn't lead to a dramatic change in the landscape. 181.FM - Lite 90's But it did transform their wildlife. Few animals are better suited to the mountainous terrain of the Web Radio than the llama. Hello! These animals are just magnificently adapted for life at altitude. There's obvious things for the low oxygen they've got big hearts and enlarged lungs, but there's something else. Can you catch one for me, Clemente? Just to see... There's something I want to show you. HERDER WHOOSHES OK. Just any one. There we go. OK. OK, this is nice. So I just want to show you the feet because unlike other hoofed animals, the llama's feet are split into two, they've got two toes. And underneath the two toes can I just lift it up a little bit? It's got this thick leathery sole. What that means is that it's perfect for surefootedness on really rough rocks. Just perfect for up this mountain terrain. And the other thing's inside it's the blood because the haemoglobin, the red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body, llamas have got more haemoglobin per unit volume than any other mammal it's extraordinary. So there's a whole series of really clever adaptations. 181.FM - Lite 90's They're just wonderful beasts. Thanks for that. Let him go.