Talk:Salt flat

Inconsistent information

In the article about the Salar de Uyuni it is stated that "Bolivia holds about 7% of the world's known lithium resources; most of those are in the Salar de Uyuni", however in this article it is stated that "It contains 50% to 70% of the world's known lithium reserves". These are very different numbers ArchangelGabriel0723 (talk) 00:49, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

That's an easy question. Check the sources cited.- Altenmann >talk 01:41, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Checked. The source cited here is of dubious expertise and gives fantastic numbers without providing source of wisdom. Replaced it with ref to reliable source, USGS (also I updated numbers from year 2011 to 2024). - Altenmann >talk 01:58, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 2 January 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Will also move Salt Flat, Texas and PROD the dab. (closed by non-admin page mover) HundredVisionsAndRevisions (talk) 17:42, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

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• Salt pan (geology) → Salt flat
• Salt flat → Salt flat (disambiguation)

– Given that Salt pan and Salt flat are synonymous, but that also Salt pan more clearly requires disambiguation, while Salt flat is the more obvious choice for an unambiguous base name. The respective usage has drawn more or less even on Ngrams, without factoring in other uses. As with Salt pan, Salt flat is currently a disambiguation page, but the resident alternative meanings are frankly weak. Neither dry lake nor salt marsh are straightforward synonyms (so should not be there in the first place) and the place names are obviously all derivative of and secondary to the geographical feature terminology. If anything, the place names actually emphasise how 'salt flat' actually enjoys wider practical geographical usage than 'salt pan'. Iskandar323 (talk) 09:26, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

• I removed two items from Salt flat as obviously wrong. And per your suggestion, two moves are actually involved. I Updated this. --Altenmann >talk 10:06, 2 January 2026 (UTC)
• I reverted the removals (which were unexplained, given the lack of an edit summary) before I saw this discussion. If Salt pan (geology) redirects to Salt flat and if the proposed removals from the dab page achieve a consensus, then the only purpose of the dab page would be to disambiguate the placename. That makes sense. Should the dab page therefore be called "Salt flat (placename)"? I'd support that. --Northernhenge (talk) 11:00, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

  To be clear, that would give us:

  • Salt pan (geology) – a redirect to Salt flat
  • Salt flat – the actual article
  • Salt flat (placename) – disambiguating the placenames

  --Northernhenge (talk) 11:04, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

  To briefly examine/explain the entries at salt flat: a dry lake, as the page states, can be a salt flat, but only if it is salty; while a salt marsh is generally characterized by vegetation, wetness and life, in direct contrast to the lack of vegetation, dryness and barrenness that tends to define a salt flat. If using 'salt flat' to mean 'salt marsh' is a practice that exists in some colloquial registers, it is just that: a colloquialism, and a rather technically erroneous one. Iskandar323 (talk) 11:32, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

  (1) YEs, a dry lake can be salt flat, just as water cane be ice, but we do not include water into ice (disambiguation), do we? (2) the article salt marsh do not call it "salt flt" . Thereforfe I removed these terms from gthe dab page as invalid. --Altenmann >talk 12:26, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

  And aslo removed two more geonames per MOSDAB: patrial titles match (do not add Montara Mountain into Mountain (disambiguation)). --Altenmann >talk 12:35, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

  As a result, the disambig page becomes invalid, therefore the second move suggestion is moot. However to preserve page history IMO we have to (1) move and then (2) turn into redirect + hatnote on the moved salt flat --Altenmann >talk 12:39, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

The actual category for this page has also always remained at Category:Salt flats, with child cat Category:Salt flats by country, which also speaks to common usage and consistency. Iskandar323 (talk) 13:29, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support Per nom, though the DAB page should be deleted as unnecessary per WP:DIFFCAPS. Salt Flat, Texas should go to Salt Flat. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 18:45, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

  Sure. I support all of this. Iskandar323 (talk) 07:38, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support all; you could argue salt flat is common name anyway but the ambiguity reducer clinches it Red Slash 18:54, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.