How are salt flats formed?

The Bonneville Salt Flats is the remnant of Lake Bonneville which covered one third of the State of Utah over 10,000 years ago. It is one of the most consistently flat areas on earth, which makes it the ideal home for landspeed record attempts. read more

Salt flats are dried-up desert lakes. They form in closed hollows where rainfall can’t drain away. In a wet climate, a lake would form but, in a desert, the water is heated and evaporates into vapour faster than it is replenished by rain. The salt and minerals dissolved in the water are left behind as a solid layer. read more

Salt flats are covered with salt and other minerals and they oftentimes look white because of the salt presence (image). These areas of land generally form in deserts and other arid places where large bodies of water have dried up over thousands of years and the salt and other minerals are the remnants. read more

Salt crystals expand, pushing the crust of salt into rough, chaotic forms. Newly formed crystals ooze between mudcracks, sketching strange patterns on the surface of the salt flat. Passing rainstorms wash off windblown dust and generate a fresh layer of blinding white salt. read more