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.

---

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

---

Example Sentences

Below this break the mesa side pitched steeply into a great basin that was blotched with white alkali flats, wave-marked with sand dunes, and broken with jagged hills and skeleton-like ridges.

From Bloom of Cactus by Coleman, Ralph P. (Ralph Pallen)

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

They soon swept by Tad, and on out over white alkali desert once more.

From The Pony Rider Boys in the Alkali or, Finding a Key to the Desert Maze by Patchin, Frank Gee

Beneath our horses' hoofs the white alkali crust which thinly covers the desert floor, crumbles and breaks.

From Mexico Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development by Hume, Martin

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.