Salt flats

Salt flats are a type of terrain.

Description
Natural salt pans (or salt flats) are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. A salt pan is formed where water pools evaporate. An example of a salt pan would be a lake or a pond that is located in a climate where the rate of water evaporation exceeds the rate of water precipitation, i.e. if it were not in a desert.

Salt pans can be dangerous. The crust of salt can conceal a quagmire of mud that can engulf a truck. The Qattara Depression in the eastern Sahara desert contains many such traps, which served as strategic barriers during World War II.