![]() ![]() Here, a thick crust of salt extends to the horizon, covered by quilted, polygonal patterns of salt rising from the ground.Īt certain times of the year, nearby lakes overflow and a thin layer of water transforms the flats into a stunning reflection of the sky. Stretching more than 4,050 square miles of the Altiplano, it is the world’s largest salt flat, left behind by prehistoric lakes evaporated long ago. Cross-section of a gypsum sand dune on the west side of Salt Flat Playa.Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni is considered one of the most extreme and remarkable vistas in all of South America, if not Earth. Alternating light and dark bands in the playa sediments. The dark color is due to the surface being wet. View across the gypsum playa of Salt Flat, Hudspeth County, Texas. The San Elizario Salt War was a dispute over ownership and access to these salt deposits. Alternating light and dark bands are either gypsum-rich (light) or dolomite-rich (dark) When the playa is dry during the summer, winds blow the gypsum into sand dunes. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) grow on the surface and immediately below the surface when the playa is wet. Capillary evaporation in the dry, hot weather pulls brine upwards and evaporite (gypsum, halite) and carbonate (calcite, dolomite) minerals precipitate. Today, a briny water table is about three feet below the surface. Originally the playa was a lake during the late Pleistocene, but drying of the climate since then has left a salt pan. The playa occupies the north-south oriented Salt Basin Grabben, which lies between the Guadalupe and Delaware Mountains on the east and the Sierra Diablo and Diablo Plateau on the west. It straddles the New Mexico-Texas border and is about 150 miles long, and 5 to 15 miles wide making it one of the largest gypsum playas in the United States. Just outside the community there is a dry salt pan called Salt Flat Playa or Salt Basin. ![]() ![]() Salt deposits Panorama of the Salt Flat, Hudspeth County, Texas The headquarters of the nearby Guadalupe Mountains National Park uses this ZIP Code although it is located closer to Pine Springs, which has no post office. Although Salt Flat is unincorporated, it has a ZIP Code of 79847. Routes 62 and 180 north of the Census-designated place (CDP) of Sierra Blanca, the county seat of Hudspeth County. Salt Flat is a ghost town in northeastern Hudspeth County, Texas, United States. ![]()
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