Talk:Salt pan (geology)

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[edit] Intended merge

Note that I intend merging salt pan and playa (by doing a proper history-merge) under the name salt pan. Playa's content is rather better; the content of both pages will naturally be conserved in the new page. There's also some overlap with endorheic, so some information that's better there will also get moved. I've leave this a couple of days - please tell me if you have a problem with this. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:25, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed merge with playa

• Support (how embarrasing, my "couple of days" has turned into over a year). However, as salt pan has now turned into a disambig, I'd prefer the final name be playa.-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:52, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
• Support -- Playa's good with me, as long as all the redirects and disambigs point to the right place. :) And don't worry, I've got things on my todo list (and that never made it to the list) over a year old too.... — Catherine\^talk 15:43, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
• Support -- In meteorological circles, Playa is used instead of salt pan more often than not. Generally, it is considered the appropriate term, and would be the one normally searched for. -Pat Carmichael, National Center for Atmospheric Research/

But you should not forget, that there are more names for the same feature: e.g. sabkha in the Middle East or Chott in Northern Africa. They describe coastal plains (coastal sabkha) or isolated inland basins (inland sabkha) with evaporation dominating precipitation Peter Faber/faber.peter@gmx.de

• Disagree —Not all playa lakes are salt flats or even salt water. In fact, this source estimates there are as many as 25,000 playas in the southern high plains of West Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas; most of them fresh water. —12.74.168.171 01:02, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
• Disagree per my comments below. Tomer^talk 19:29, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
• Disagree although we need to merge some things and rip apart other things that are being lumped together. In this case the anon is correct. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:16, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
• Disagree I agree with User:12.74.168.171 about the non-conformability of the two concepts. Even brakish water playas don't always produce salt flats. I also think that "salt pan" is less preferable than "salt flat" But is that just an American perspective?.Bejnar 05:25, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

The articles need to be sorted out and factual errors or generalizations corrected and clarified (there are several different related phenomena here that are being lumped together). I wouldn't recommending merging them unless they're merged into intermittent lake, dry lake, dry lakebed, or playa, which is not an alkali flat (which is the same thing as a salt pan/flat). Tomer^talk 19:24, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

• Perhaps we should move the mentions of salt flats to the appropriate article, so salt/alkali flats and playas aren't confused. Salt pan (geology) should become a redirect though, it's confusing when there's also salt pan (evaporation) and we can easily put it at a unique title. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:15, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
• I added a request for expert input on this topic. I would write it myselve myself, but I'm not a geologist. It appears that this has been mentioned before, but some clarification should be made to show the differences between playas, salt flats, salt pans, dry lakes, etc., or they should be merged. This article could also benefit from some photographs, diagrams, or at least a citation of a source. Justin 08:00, 27 September 2006 (UTC)