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Salt pan (geology)

Natural salt pans or salt flats are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts and are natural formations (unlike salt evaporation ponds, which are artificial).

This article is about the land feature. For the tidal feature, see Salt pannes and pools.

A salt pan forms by evaporation of a water pool, such as a lake or pond. This happens in climates where the rate of water evaporation exceeds the rate of precipitation —that is, in a desert. If the water cannot drain into the ground, it remains on the surface until it evaporates, leaving behind minerals precipitated from the salt ions dissolved in the water. Over thousands of years, the minerals (usually salts) accumulate on the surface.[1] These minerals reflect the sun's rays and often appear as white areas.


Salt pans can be dangerous. The crust of salt can conceal a quagmire of mud that can engulf a truck. The Qattara Depression in the eastern Sahara Desert contains many such traps which served as strategic barriers during World War II.[2]

 – dry lake in the Saharan area of Africa

Chott

 – Area that contained a standing surface water body

Dry lake

 – Salt lake above the tide line, where evaporite deposits accumulate

Sabkha

 – Structural dome formed of salt or halite

Salt diapir

 – Shallow artificial pond designed to extract salts from sea water or other brines,

Salt evaporation pond

 – Landlocked body of water which has a high concentration of salts

Salt lake

 – Geometries and processes associated with the presence of significant thicknesses of evaporites

Salt tectonics

 – Closed drainage basin that has no outflow

Sink

 – type of pale or grey soil

Solonchak

 – Coastal wetlands where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers

Mudflat

Briere, Peter R. (May 2002). "Playa, playa lake, sabkha: Proposed definitions for old terms". Journal of Arid Environments. 45 (1). Elsevier: 1–7. :2000JArEn..45....1B. doi:10.1006/jare.2000.0633.

Bibcode

Lowenstein, Tim K.; (October 1985). "Criteria for the recognition of salt-pan evaporites". Sedimentation. 32 (5): 627–644. Bibcode:1985Sedim..32..627L. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3091.1985.tb00478.x.

Lawrence A. Hardie