Mar de Ansenuza

Mar de Ansenuza in Córdoba Province is South America's largest saltwater lake — 6,000 square kilometres of shallow brine that turns pink in summer from the algae that the flamingos depend on — and its existence in the middle of the Argentine agricultural pampas, where you expect nothing but soybeans, is its first surprise. The flamingos number in the hundreds of thousands during peak season; the salt concentration is three times higher than the ocean; and the new national park established in 2022 protects a wetland ecosystem that Argentine science barely had time to document before the designation came through.

Mar de Ansenuza (Laguna Mar Chiquita) is the largest saltwater lake in South America, covering approximately 6,000 square kilometres in northern Córdoba Province, and one of the most important wetland systems in the western hemisphere for migratory shorebirds on the Central and Pacific flyways. The lake was recognised as a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2002, and the Mar de Ansenuza National Park, established in 2022, provides formal protection for the first time. Three flamingo species — Chilean, Andean, and James's — use the lake as their largest Argentine breeding and feeding site, with an estimated 90,000-200,000 flamingos present during peak summer season. The lake's salinity, approximately 300-350 grams per litre (ten times ocean salinity), is maintained by evaporation without outlet and fluctuates with rainfall over multi-year cycles — the lake reached its maximum recorded extent of 9,000 square kilometres in the 1980s and has contracted significantly since.