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Salt flat

Flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals

Salt flat
Summary

Flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals

the geological feature

The [[Salar de Uyuni]], in [[Bolivia]], the world's largest salt pan.

Natural salt flats or salt pans are flat, open 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).

A salt flat 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 precipitationthat 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. These minerals reflect the sun's rays and often appear as white areas.

Salt flats 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.

Examples

The [[Bonneville Salt Flats]], [[Utah]]

The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where many land speed records have been set, are a well-known salt pan in the arid regions of the western United States.

The Etosha pan, in the Etosha National Park in Namibia, is another prominent example of a salt pan.

The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the largest salt pan in the world. As of 2024, with an estimated 23 million tons, Bolivia holds about 22% of the world's known lithium resources (105 million tons); most of those are in the Salar de Uyuni.{{cite news |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-lithium.pdf

Parts of Rann of Kutch (India) are salt marsh in the wet season and salt pan in the dry season.

Salt flats can also be found in Kenya. A place called Chalbi Desert in North Horr Sub County, Marsabit County in Kenya. In the language of the Gabra people, "Chalbi" means "bare, salty area".

References

Sources

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References

  1. "Physical Geography {{!}} How Salt Shapes Our Lives".
  2. Jorgensen, C. (2003). ''Rommel's panzers: Rommel and the Panzer forces of the Blitzkrieg, 1940-1942'' (pp. 78–79). St. Paul, MN: MBI.
  3. Borsa, A. A. (2002). "GPS Survey of the salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, for Satellite Altimeter Calibration". American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting.
  4. (2003). "Characterization of the Salar de Uyuni for in-orbit satellite calibration". IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens..
  5. Springer, K.. (9 July 2018). "Rann of Kutch: Explore India's largest salt desert". [[CNN]].
  6. Nyamweru, Celia. "From Lake to Desert: The Chalbi Basin". Kenya Past and Present.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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