sabkha in Science Expand

sabkha
(sb'k)
A flat area between a desert and an ocean, characterized by a crusty surface consisting of
evaporite deposits (including salt, gypsum, and calcium carbonate), windblown sediments, and
tidal deposits. Sabkhas form primarily through the evaporation of sea water that seeps upward
from a shallow water table and through the drying of windblown sea spray.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary

Copyright 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia Article for sabkha Expand

(Arabic), saline flat or salt-crusted depression, commonly found along the coasts of North Africa
and Saudi Arabia. Sabkhahs are generally bordered by sand dunes and have soft, poorly
cemented but impermeable floors, due to periodic flooding and evaporation. Concentration of
seawater and capillary discharge of groundwater result in deposits of gypsum, calcite, and
aragonite. Most sabkhahs are thought to have once been small sea inlets and are akin to basins in
which evaporites formed in the geological past.