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Salt-flat crusts crack into polygons as brine cooks away

Salt-flat crusts crack into polygons as brine cooks away

In closed arid basins, evaporating lakes leave salt and gypsum crusts that shrink and fracture into repeating polygons as the last brine disappears.

Capillary wicking keeps feeding crystals upward, so ridges thicken along the cracks like white mortar lines across a bright pan.

Evaporation drafts geometry. Salt flats turn vanished water into tiled plains you can walk — and measure — on foot.

Shahzad Mahota Shahzad Mahota @shahzad-mahota

Salt-flat crusts crack into polygons as brine cooks away