alkali flat

American  

noun

1. a level area, as a dry lake bed, in which evaporation has concentrated alkali minerals, as sodium sulfates and carbonates.

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alkali flat British  

noun

1. an arid plain encrusted with alkaline salts derived from the streams draining into it

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Etymology

Origin of alkali flat

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

When I was overcome with exhaustion, my sway morphing into a semi-conscious stupor, I knew it was time to go — the only thing separating me from my air mattress being a vast alkali flat.

From Los Angeles Times

The footprints were formed in soft mud on the margins of a shallow lake which now forms part of Alkali Flat in White Sands.

From BBC

As an alkali flat, there is nothing to burn and nothing to break.

From Scientific American

Centuries of evaporation have transformed this ancient lake bed into a dry alkali flat, inhabited today by a migratory roost of 30,000 sandhill cranes.

From New York Times

The weeklong Burning Man festival takes place once a year over Labor Day weekend in a remote alkali flat in northwestern Nevada.

From Salon