We passed them on Tuesday. The Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats go on for many miles. In some areas people write things in the salt with little black rocks (maybe briquettes?) and these too stretch on for miles and miles.
Water in this huge basin has no way to drain out. So it stays there, and the salt and sediments in them also have no way to drain out, thus the huge amounts of salts.
These are nothing. Much of southwestern Bolivia is a salar, and there are numerous smaller ones tucked into the Andes in northern Argentina and Chile.
Sure LOOKS big when you drive across it, though!
It would be nice if there was more info or facts on the actual salt flats but this is a fascinating article!
Thanks