But the lake slowly dried up after the last Ice Age, leaving a bed of salt replenished by salts and minerals carried by water trapped here before evaporating. Once, Death Valley was filled by Lake Manley, eighty miles long and six-hundred feet deep. Runoff from the eastern side of the Panamint Range and the western side of the Amargosa Range also ends up here. With nowhere lower to go, the Amargosa River ends its one-hundred eighty-five-mile journey here. The basin is covered in a crust of salt, ninety-five percent of which is table salt (sodium chloride). National Park Service.Badwater Basin in Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on North America and among the lowest on the planet. National Park Service).' National Park Service - Experience Your America. After thousands of years, enough salts have washed in to produce layer upon layer of salt crust. As the water evaporates, minerals concentrate until only the salts remain. As the water gathers in the valleys, the floods come to rest, forming temporary lakes. Rain falls on the surrounding mountains and flows downward, creating floods. Three basic things are needed to form salt flats: (1) source of salts, usually from a large drainage system, (2) enclosed basin that doesn't drain to the sea and wash away the salts, and (3) an arid climate where evaporation exceeds precipitation, leaving behind just the salts and fine silt. For this reason, vehicles are prohibited off established roads in Death Valley. Delicate crystals are easily crushed and the relatively thin upper crust of salt can break through to the mud layer below, leaving tire tracks and even footprints. Salt flats are too harsh for most plants and animals to survive, yet are quite fragile. The salt flats in Badwater Basin cover nearly 200 square miles, among the largest protected salt flats in the world.

Death valley salt flats