white alkali

American  

noun

1. Agriculture. a whitish layer of mineral salts, especially sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulfate, often occurring on top of soils where rainfall is low.

2. refined soda ash.

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white alkali British  

noun

1. refined sodium carbonate

2. any of several mineral salts, esp sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulphate, that often appear on the surface of soils as a whitish layer in dry conditions

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Example Sentences

The bank dipped to a white alkali pit where the light lay in dead pools, gray in the twilight, quivering with heat, layers of blue air above ashes of death.

From The Freebooters of the Wilderness by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)

The spot is surrounded by a white alkali desert, covered in places with salt and alkali deposits.

From Sword and Pen Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier by Owens, John Algernon

The famous Death Valley is a dry lake of this kind where the sun beats down on the white alkali plain till it is almost certain death to try to cross it without a guide.

From Stories of California by Sexton, Ella M.

League upon league the infinite reaches of dazzling white alkali laid themselves out like an immeasurable scroll unrolled from horizon to horizon; not a bush, not a twig relieved that horrible monotony.

From McTeague by Norris, Frank

Gypsum, however, has no effect upon white alkali.

From One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered by Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James)