salt beds
Dried saline deposits
Salt beds are geological deposits of crystallized salt, typically formed when ancient seas or lakes evaporated.
They occur as flat, layered formations underground or at the surface, and are mined for table salt, road salt, and industrial chemicals.
Surface salt beds in arid regions may appear as white expanses of dried salt flats: The salt beds of Utah's Bonneville Flats have hosted land speed records since 1914.
- haliteCrystalline sodium chloride ore
- brineWater saturated with sodium
- playaDried lakebed in desert
- dry lakeEvaporated basin floor
- evaporationLiquid turning to gas
basin · stratigraphy · sedimentology · geochemistry · ancient oceans · Bonneville · mineral deposit · preservation methods · Wieliczka · de-icing · archaeological sites · sedimentary rock · remote sensing · white · deposits · trade routes · crust · arid
- Potash Miningpotassium chloride, underground mining, mine shafts, flotation, boring machines
- salt depositshalite, evaporites, brine, natron, Dead Sea
- sedimentssand, silt, mud, clay, gravel
- evaporite mineralshalite, gypsum, anhydrite, borax, natron
salt bedsfreshwater lakes
Non-marine standing bodies
mountain streams · freshwater springs · glacial lakes · freshwater marshes · rivers
salt bedspeat bogs
Acidic wetlands accumulating organic matter
coal seams · clay deposits · limestone formations · sandstone formations