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50-532: The association was formed in the garage of Babe Ouse in 1945. Originally it was called the California Roadster Association . Ouse, a dry lakes record holder in a Marmon , was tired of racing against the clock and, with the help of Bill Dehler and Emmett Malloy , built a race track blocks away from the dirt lot that would become Ascot Park . That first track was known as Carrell Speedway and Judge Carrell & Christopher J.C. Agajanian were

100-424: A decline from 1992 to 2020. Sabkha A sabkha ( Arabic : سبخة ) is a coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite -saline minerals accumulate as the result of semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coastal plains just above normal high-tide level. Within a sabkha, evaporite-saline minerals sediments typically accumulate below

150-434: A dry lake bed is itself typically devoid of vegetation, they are commonly ringed by shadscale , saltbrush and other salt-tolerant plants that provide critical winter fodder for livestock and other herbivores . In southwest Idaho and parts of Nevada and Utah there are a number of rare species that occur nowhere else but in the inhospitable environment of seasonally flooded playas. A new species of giant fairy shrimp

200-405: A dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline compounds, it is known as an alkali flat. If covered with salt, it is known as a salt flat . If its basin is primarily salt , then a dry lake bed is called a salt pan , pan , or salt flat (the latter being a remnant of a salt lake ). Hardpan is the dry terminus of an internally drained basin in a dry climate, a designation typically used in

250-519: A dry lake may be found in an area ringed by bajadas . Dry lakes are typically formed in semi- arid to arid regions of the world. The largest concentration of dry lakes (nearly 22,000) is in the southern High Plains of Texas and eastern New Mexico . Most dry lakes are small. However, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia , near Potosí , the largest salt flat in the world, comprises 4,085 square miles (10,582 square km). Many dry lakes contain shallow water during

300-599: A geological phenomenon known as " sailing stones " that leave linear "racetrack" imprints as they slowly move across the surface without human or animal intervention. These rocks have been recently filmed in motion by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego and are due to a perfect coincidence of events. First, the playa has to fill with water, which must be deep enough to form floating ice during winter, but still shallow enough that

350-452: A natural stepping stone to more sophisticated racing, including the Indy 500, as 19 winners of the Indy 500 got their starts from track roadster racing. Dry lake A dry lake bed , also known as a playa ( / ˈ p l aɪ - ə / ), is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of

400-600: A playa in the Black Rock Desert in western Nevada every year. Fangfang Yao et al (2023), at the University of Virginia reported that more than half of the world's large lakes are drying up. They assessed almost 2,000 large lakes using satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models. They found that unsustainable human use, changes in rainfall and run-off, sedimentation, and rising temperatures have driven lake levels down globally, with 53% of lakes showing

450-411: A sabkha coastal plain . These coastal plains are very flat, with reliefs between 10–50 cm, and their seaward slope can be as little as 1:1,000. These environments can be found laterally contemporaneous in parallel belts to the coast as well. Coral reefs , barrier islands , and oolite shoals form the barrier with the open shelf. These types of deposits are indicative of higher energy and protect

500-436: A salt flat is called a sabkha (also spelled sabkhah , subkha or sebkha ) or shott ( chott ). In Central Asia, a similar "cracked mud" salt flat is known as a takyr . In Iran salt flats are called kavir . A dry lake is formed when water from rain or other sources, like intersection with a water table, flows into a dry depression in the landscape, creating a pond or lake. If the total annual evaporation rate exceeds

550-428: A “chicken wire” crystalline structure. Below this are the intertidal deposits typified by laminated, organic-rich muds formed by the microbial mats that grade downward into more bioturbated muds. The subtidal facies show carbonate grainstones and lagoonal muds. These facies sequences, except for the halite that is frequently re-dissolved when wetted, can easily be preserved. Factors enabling preservation include

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600-447: Is a phonetic transliteration of the Arabic word used to describe any form of salt flat . A sabkha is also known as a sabkhah, sebkha , or coastal sabkha . The term sabkha has also been used as a general term for any flat area, coastal or interior, where, as the result of evaporation, salt and other evaporite minerals precipitate near or at the surface. The term continental sabkha

650-458: Is a dry inland desert in the Gobi region, flooded by ground water from nearby mountains. The climate is one of the main factors in sabkha development. Rainfall in this arid region usually occurs as thunderstorms and averages 4 cm/year. Temperatures can range in excess of 50 °C to as low as 0 °C. Humidity is linked to the wind direction, with humidity as low as 20% in the mornings from off

700-506: Is used for such environments found within deserts. Because of the confusion created by using sabkha for salt flats and playas , it has been proposed that the usage of this term be abandoned for playas and other intracontinental basins and flats. The origin and progression of coastal sabkha development at the southern shore of the Persian Gulf was first discussed in detail in the seminal paper by Evans et al. 1969. The southern shoreline of

750-589: The Great Basin of the western United States. Another term for dry lake bed is playa . The Spanish word playa ( pronounced [ˈplaʝa] ) literally means "beach". Dry lakes are known by this name in some parts of Mexico and the western United States. This term is used e.g. on the Llano Estacado and other parts of the Southern High Plains and is commonly used to address paleolake sediments in

800-556: The Oman fold and thrust belt can be as narrow as several hundred meters. If the coast has dune fields, then flooding creates many smaller pools between the crests of the dunes. In some parts of the world, these lakes can also form in inland deserts, filled by rain or a rising water table from underground aquifers . For example, large parts of the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia and

850-610: The Permian Basin in Texas, as well as the Jurassic Gulf of Mexico . Modern sabkhas are present in varying form along the coasts of North Africa , Baja California , and at Shark Bay in Australia . Execution of construction and civil engineering works in sabkhas must overcome a number of geotechnical engineering issues. Sabkha soils are often distinguished by their low strength, as

900-656: The Sahara like Lake Ptolemy . In South America, the usual term for a dry lake bed is salar or salina , Spanish for salt pan . Pan is the term used in most of South Africa. These may include the small round highveld pans, typical of the Chrissiesmeer area, to the extensive pans of the Northern Cape province. Terms used in Australia include salt pans (where evaporite minerals are present) and clay pans . In Arabic,

950-461: The phreatic surface to form unique landforms, such as sabkhas. Due to the minimal vegetation, aeolian activity has the capacity to cause deep erosion into the surface sediments. However, it's unable to displace material below the capillary zone due to the full saturation of this zone preventing its uplift by the wind. As a result, the Earth’s surface in such regions tends to mimic the shape and slope of

1000-466: The Persian Gulf is a shallow, low-angle carbonate ramp characterised by an evaporitic supratidal system passing offshore, via a broad carbonate–evaporite intertidal environment, into a carbonate-dominated subtidal system. This is a low-energy setting with a small tidal range (1–2 m) and low wave energy as a result of the limited fetch. High rates of evaporation result in salinities of 45–46 g l along

1050-634: The SCRA and honored the date. The CRA was suspended indefinitely in 1994 after just four races, with Bobby Michnowicz leading the point standings by one point over Leland McSpadden. No Champion was crowned. Many sprint car legends have come from the ranks of CRA. Stars include Bob Hogle, Billy Wilkerson, Jimmy Oskie, Bobby Olivero , Rick Goudy, Buster Venard, Dean Thompson, Bubby Jones , Brad Noffsinger, Eddie Wirth, Rip Williams, John Redican, Ron Shuman , Lealand McSpadden , Richard Griffin, Billy Boat, Mike Kirby, Mike Sweeney, Stan McElrath and many more. The CRA became

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1100-404: The chemical content in these flats is attributed to groundwater that seeps to the surface. This seepage results in a concentration of these dissolved substances, which is estimated to be about ten times that found in seawater. The arid conditions of such regions are often characterized by sparse or even completely absent vegetation. This lack of plant cover allows aeolian processes to interact with

1150-422: The concentrated salt solutions found in sabkha brines can weaken the soil structure. In addition, the extreme climatic conditions under which sabkha deposits form - such as substantial temperature fluctuations and recurrent cycles of wetting and drying - can induce instability in these soils, and some minerals that act as binding agents, or 'cements', in these soils have a high solubility, which can potentially reduce

1200-492: The continental sabkha fill with shallow layers of water, and cannot be crossed until they dry out to form a new crust. When the ground is partly dried, a salt crust forms over soft mud or hollow cavities, and a vehicle will become stuck after breaking through the crust. Here are two current examples of dune fields being flooded. The first is not a desert, but a coastal dune field in the Amazon region, flooded by heavy rains. The second

1250-573: The driving forces behind both tracks and the CRA itself. Sprint cars were introduced in 1953 and the name was changed in 1957 to the California Racing Association , or CRA . In 1978, Gary Sokola became president and instituted several new safety measures, including the national 410 limit, the tire rule and padded roll cages. Sokola left the CRA to join the USAC and Frank Lewis took over. He would be

1300-445: The dry interior and building in the afternoon as a strong, onshore wind prevail. At night, relative humidity of 100% can lead to dense fogs. Water temperatures vary by depth with shallow water as much as 10 °C warmer. These high temperatures drive high rates of evaporation in the Persian Gulf , as much as 124 cm/year leading salinity to increase in the shallow lagoons to as much as 70 ppt. The net rate of evaporation from

1350-456: The features silt up, or the land rises, or the sea level falls, then the trapped water evaporates , leaving a flat salt pan, or sabkha . If the coastal region has irregular topography , then the flooding creates large independent creeks, or khors. A khor is a shallow, subtidal flat or tidal inlet. The inlet may host grey mangroves , depending on whether less saline water is available from wadis or groundwater . As sediment begins to accumulate,

1400-404: The khor-lagoon environments, allowing for the growth of mangrove swamps and algal and cyano-bacterial mats that prefer the more closed, lower energy environment. Inland of this are the supratidal sabkhas. The sabkhas can be as wide as 15 km when seaward of dune fields supplying large amounts of sediment. Sabkhas seaward of low outcrops of Miocene carbonate-evaporites or alluvial fans off

1450-429: The khors become more shallow and form a lagoon , or intertidal flat. The lagoons continue to fill until the lagoon floor is exposed at low tide, and the sabkha begins to form. A sabkha may be inundated during higher than normal spring tides, after rainstorms, or when driving winds push seawater onshore to a depth of a few centimeters. Mature sabkhas are only flooded after heavy rainstorms and may eventually coalesce to form

1500-482: The last president, as things declined for the sport shortly thereafter. Ascot raceway closed in 1990 and the CRA was left without a home track. Lewis tried expanding the sport across the state and various parts of the country, increasing the purse and spending thousands on advertising out of his pocket to keep the show going. In 1993, a scheduled race was cancelled at the Ventura Raceway . A majority of members formed

1550-556: The microbial mats and mangrove paleosoils , found in the sabkha sequence, that have total organic carbon up to 8.2% and hydrogen indices typical of marine type II kerogens . Some ancient analogs include immediate subsurface formations such as the Permian Khuff Formation , Jurassic Arab and Hith anhydrites , and Tertiary sedimentary rocks. Similar deposits are also found in the Ordovician Williston Basin ,

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1600-428: The northwest "shamal” gale-force winds that create waves of greater height than the intertidal height and drive water as much as 5 km inland over the sabkha to a depth of a few centimeters. The climate variations lead to the very dynamic nature of a sabkha. Halite is deposited on the surface of the sabkha and gypsum and aragonite precipitate in the subsurface via capillary action from brines brought up from

1650-407: The only water available to wildlife in the desert. Antelope and other wildlife gather there after rainstorms to drink. Threats to dry lakes include pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations such as cattle feedlots and dairies. Results are erosion; fertilizer, pesticide and sediment runoff from farms; and overgrazing . A non-native shrub that has been used for rangeland restoration in

1700-443: The open-marine coast of Abu Dhabi and up to 89 g l in more-restricted lagoons. The coast of Abu Dhabi is locally protected from open-marine conditions by a number of peninsulas and offshore shoals and islands associated with the east–west trending Great Pearl Bank. Groundwater plays a key role in the formation of sabkhas. The phenomenon of groundwater discharging to the surface doesn't always result in visible open water. Instead,

1750-457: The overall structural integrity. Coastal sabkhas are composed predominantly of minerals such as calcite , dolomite , and gypsum . These are accompanied by smaller quantities of anhydrite , magnesite , halite , and carnalite , as well as various other sulfates and chlorides. The groundwater in these areas is characterized by its high salinity, with sodium chloride levels potentially reaching up to 23%. This saline water often resides close to

1800-508: The progradation of the sabkha with sedimentation rates of 1 m/1000 years and the creation of Stokes surfaces. These surfaces are created by the deflation of the sabkha surface that is related to the level of the groundwater table acting as a local base level. Sabkha deposits are believed to form some of the major subsurface hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Middle East (and elsewhere). The source of these hydrocarbons (both gas and oil) may be

1850-457: The rainy season, especially during wet years. If the layer of water is thin and is moved around the dry lake bed by wind, an exceedingly hard and smooth surface may develop. Thicker layers of water may result in a "cracked-mud" surface and teepee structure desiccation features. If there is very little water, dunes can form. The Racetrack Playa , located in Death Valley, California , features

1900-476: The rocks are exposed. When the temperature drops at night, this pond freezes into thin sheets of "windowpane" ice, which then must be thick enough to maintain strength, but thin enough to move freely. Finally, when the sun comes out, the ice melts and cracks into floating panels; these are blown across the playa by light winds, propelling the rocks in front of them. The stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for three or four years. While

1950-443: The sabkha can be as much as an order of magnitude less and has averaged 6 cm for the last 4,000 to 5,000 years. The reasons for this are that the sabkha surface is not a free-water surface, the high humidity during the night, and vertical stratification of the air column. Despite the loss of water due to evaporation, the groundwater, never deeper than 1.5 m, flows seawards and is recharged by continental waters, rainstorms, and

2000-952: The smoothness of the surface allows low-clearance vehicles to travel very fast without any risk of disruption by surface irregularities, and the path traveled has no obstacles to avoid. The dry lake beds at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and Black Rock Desert in Nevada have both been used for setting land speed records. Lake Eyre and Lake Gairdner in South Australia have also been used for various land speed record attempts. Dry lake beds that rarely fill with water are sometimes used as locations for air bases for similar reasons. Examples include Groom Lake at Area 51 in Nevada and Edwards Air Force Base (known initially as Muroc Dry Lake) in California. Brines from

2050-476: The southern UAE consist of patterns of high drifting barchan dunes alternating with continental sabkha filled with salt flats. In some places, the continental sabkha connect to form long accessible corridors into the desert. The third picture shows the area south of the crescent-shaped Liwa Oasis in the southern UAE . The picture is about 80 km wide, with each continental sabkha about 2-3 km long and 1 km wide. You can see white deposits of salt covering

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2100-503: The subsurface of dry lakes are often exploited for valuable minerals in solution. See, for example, Searles Dry Lake and Lithium resources . Under United States law, a "playa lake" may be considered isolated wetlands and may be eligible to enroll in the new wetlands component of the Conservation Reserve Program , enacted in the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107–171, Sec. 2101). The Burning Man yearly event takes place in

2150-507: The surface of mudflats or sandflats. Evaporite-saline minerals, tidal-flood, and aeolian deposits characterize many sabkhas found along modern coastlines. The accepted type locality for a sabkha is at the southern coast of the Persian Gulf , in the United Arab Emirates . Evidence of clastic sabkhas are found in the geological record of many areas, including the UK and Ireland. Sabkha

2200-473: The surface of the continental sabkha. The Moreeb Dune , rising 120 m above the continental sabkha, is located roughly in the middle of the picture. The border between Saudi Arabia and the UAE is shown in red. The floor of a continental sabkha is usually a hard-packed combination of sand, mud and salt. It is easy to walk or drive 4x4 vehicles across the dry, continental sabkha. However, after rains and flash-floods,

2250-420: The total annual inflow, the depression will eventually become dry again, forming a dry lake. Salts originally dissolved in the water precipitate out and are left behind, gradually building up over time. A dry lake appears as a flat bed of clay, generally encrusted with precipitated salts. These evaporite minerals are a concentration of weathering products such as sodium carbonate, borax, and other salts. In deserts,

2300-404: The underlying water table. The resultant surfaces evolve into vast, flat, discharge areas where the process of evaporation leads to the accumulation of salts. Over time, these accumulations form crusts of a salty nature, characterizing the unique landscape of these regions. In the khor-lagoon-sabkha model, an initial rise in sea-level floods coastal areas and creates shallow water features. If

2350-446: The water evaporates upon reaching the surface, leading to the formation of salt deposits. The salt flats of Abu Dhabi are a typical example of this, with the evaporation of water occurring from the capillary fringe - a subsurface layer where groundwater seeps up from a water table - which intersects the surface. This activity has contributed to the creation of an expansive salt flat, covering approximately 36,000 square kilometers. Much of

2400-439: The water table. In drier parts of the sabkha the gypsum can be altered to anhydrite and the aragonite can be dolomitized diagenetically . Thermal contraction at night and expansion during the day leads to concave polygonal pans as the edges have been upturned, in part due to growth of evaporites wedging the crack apart. Below this is a gypsum mush where nodules of anhydrite and other sulfates may develop. These might also form

2450-424: The west, Kochia prostrata , also poses a significant threat to playas and their associated rare species, as it capable of crowding out native vegetation and draining a playa's standing water because of its root growth. The extremely flat, smooth, and hard surfaces of dry lake beds make them ideal for fast motor vehicles and motorcycles. Large-sized dry lakes are excellent spots for pursuing land speed records , as

2500-515: Was found in 2006. Although a large predatory species, it evaded detection because of the murkiness of the playa's water caused by winds and a fine clay load. This shrimp species is able to regenerate using tiny undetectable cysts that can remain in a dry lake bed for years until conditions are optimum for hatching. Lepidium davisii is another rare species, a perennial plant whose habitat is restricted to playas in southern Idaho and northern Nevada. Far from major rivers or lakes, playas are often

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