Salt flat
Salt flat , geological technical term: Playa , is a deposit area of dry salt lakes .
A salt flat is a sedimentation area of an intermittent body of water . It continues to form in the interior of endorheic basins in semi-arid areas, but unlike Sabchas it is surrounded by high areas.
Disambiguation
Some authors include the inland Abkhazia in the term Playa , the term Sabcha is restricted to the coastal Sabchas. It doesn't matter whether it is surrounded by high areas or not.
Depending on their occurrence, salt plains have different names:
- in Utah ( USA ): Salt Flats
- in Mexico : Playa
- in South America : Salar (from el salar span. the salt place) or Salina
- in Turkmenistan : Takyr
- in Central Asia : Shala or Bajir
- in Iran : Kawir or Kewir
- in Southern Africa : Vlei or English Pan (for pan )
- in North Africa : Schott (from Arabic شط, DMG šaṭṭ ‚coast / shore / dune ', from šṭṭ “ exceed, deviate ”) or Sebcha
Hydrology and education
The finest material is washed in by periodic or episodic inflows, which remains as a salty clay when the water evaporates , so-called salt clay . The only small deposits in each case add up over time as evaporite to form thick layers of layers. If it is later covered with other sedimentary rocks, a salt dome can form.
During the rainy season, the salt plains are covered with shallow salt lakes. During the dry season, dry cracks form on the flat surfaces .
The salt flats of the earth
Surname | country | Size km 2 |
---|---|---|
Salar de Uyuni | Bolivia | 10582 |
Great salt desert | Utah, USA | 10360 |
Makgadikgadi salt pans | Botswana | 8400 |
Chott el Djerid | Tunisia | 7700 |
Etosha pan | Namibia | 4760 |
Examples of salt flats are parts of the Etosha pan and the Makgadikgadi salt pans in Africa, for example the North African Schotts or the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia . In the United States , the Salt Flats in Utah or the Black Rock Desert in Nevada are well-known examples of salt flats. Its extensive, absolute evenness made it the venue for speed records .
literature
- Hans Füchtbauer (Ed.): Sediment Petrology. Volume 2: Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. 4th, completely revised edition. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-510-65138-3 .
- Andreas Schäfer: Clastic Sediments. Facies and sequence stratigraphy. Elsevier, Munich et al. 2005, ISBN 3-8274-1351-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Explanation of words in Spanish, Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua Española
- ↑ Compilation according to the information from the corresponding Wikipedia articles.