Chott

In geology, a chott (pronounced /ʃɔt/ and sometimes spelled shott; from the Arabic šaṭṭ شط "bank, coast", from the root šṭṭ "exceed, deviate") is a dry (salt) lake in the Saharan area of Africa (mainly in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) that stays dry in the summer, but receives some water in the winter. These lakes have changing shores and are dry for much of the year. They are formed by the waters of the spring thaw from the peaks of the Atlas mountain range, with occasional rainwater or groundwater discharge from sources in the Sahara, such as from the Bas Saharan Basin.

Water sources

The chotts of the Sahara are fed intermittently during periods of infrequent rainfall. They are subject to a high evaporation rate, hence salts eventually accumulate in the surface of the sediment. In fact, annual evaporation rates per year in chotts often exceed 20 times the annual precipitation rate. This salt accumulation can lead chotts to have particularly high albedo, albeit with comparable variability as well. While evaporite deposition predominates on chotts, in more humid climatic periods, layers of mud can be deposited on the chott surface. When near a source of loose sand, aeolian deposition can also play a role in the sedimentary deposition on the chott surface.