A dry lake is an ephemeral lakebed, or a remnant of an endorheic lake. Such flats consist of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali salts. Alternative names for the dry lake include alkali flat and playa.
A playa lake may cover a wide area, but it is never deep. Most water in it evaporates. leaving a layer of salt on the surface. These salt covered stretches are called saltpans.
If its basin is primarily salt then the dry lake is called a salt pans, pan, hardpan, or salt flat (the latter is a remnant of a salt lake). Other dry lake types include the sabkha and the mudflat.
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Famous quotes containing the words dry and/or lake:
“the dry indifferent glare in my mind’s eye
wavered but burned on.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Lenin on a bench beside a lake disturbed
The swans. He was not the man for swans.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)