Dry lake

A lake basin that is usually dry because evaporation exceeds inflow, often accumulating fine sediment or salt.

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Evaporation: The phase change by which liquid becomes vapor at a surface. Dry lake basins lose more water to the atmosphere than they receive.
Bonneville Salt Flats: A salt-crusted playa in northwestern Utah, formed within the former Lake Bonneville basin. It is a prominent salt flat created by the drying of a much larger lake.
Salt evaporation pond: A shallow pond where solar evaporation concentrates brine and enables salt crystallization. Natural salt flats have long supplied settings and models for evaporative salt production.
Perennial lake: A lake that retains surface water throughout the year under its usual climatic conditions. Unlike a dry lake, it maintains a persistent body of surface water.
Lake Bonneville: A large Pleistocene pluvial lake that once occupied much of the Great Basin in present-day Utah and nearby states. Its retreat left the Bonneville Salt Flats and other dry basin surfaces.
Endorheic basin: A drainage basin with no outlet to the ocean, where water leaves mainly through evaporation or seepage. Many dry lakes occupy closed basins where inflow has nowhere to drain.
Racetrack Playa: A dry lake bed in Death Valley National Park, known for rocks that leave long trails across its surface. Its exceptionally flat floor preserves tracks from rare episodes of ice-assisted rock movement.
Land speed racing: A motorsport in which vehicles attempt high speeds over measured courses, often on exceptionally flat surfaces. The Bonneville Salt Flats are a famous venue for land-speed records.
Ephemeral lake: A lake that forms temporarily and disappears as water inputs and losses change. It may fill and vanish, whereas a dry lake commonly names the basin or its exposed bed.
Paleolake: A lake that existed in the geological past but no longer occupies its former basin. Many dry lake beds are exposed remnants of paleolakes.