What is Salt pan?
[[File:Salar Uyuni Bolivie.JPG|thumb|alt=A panorama of flat, white ground, stretching to the horizon; a single person stands in the middle of the frame in the distance|[[Salar de Uyuni]] in [[Bolivia]]]] A '''salt plain''' (also known as a '''salt pan''' or '''salt flat''') is a flat area of ground covered with [[salt]] and other [[mineral]]s. They are usually purely white. They are found in [[desert]] areas. In areas where salt plains form, the rate of [[evaporation]] (how quickly water dries up) is faster than the rate of [[precipitation]] (how often rain falls). A salt plain is formed where a [[lake]] or [[pond]] would otherwise be found. When the water dries up, the minerals stay left behind on the suface of the ground.<ref>{{cite journal |date=October 1985 | title = Criteria for the recognition of salt-pan evaporites | journal = Sedimentation | volume = 32 | issue = 5 | pages = 627–644 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-3091.1985.tb00478.x | bibcode = 1985Sedim..32..627L | last1 = Lowenstein | first1 = TIM K. | last2 = Hardie | first2 = Lawrence A. }}</ref> Over thousands of years, the minerals (usually salts) build up on the surface. Large salt plains are common in the [[Sahara Desert]], the [[Kalahari Desert]], the [[Rann of Kutch]], the western [[United States]] and the central deserts of [[Australia]]. The [[Altiplano]] in Bolivia has the world's largest salt plan, the [[Salar de Uyuni]]. ==Related pages== * [[Salt lake]] == References == {{reflist}} == Other websites == *{{commonscat-inline|Salt flats}} [[Category:Plains]] [[Category:Landforms]] {{geo-stub}}