Sabkha

Sabkha is a phonetic translation of the Arabic word for a salt flat. Sabkhas are supratidal, forming along arid coastlines and are characterized by evaporite-carbonate deposits with some siliciclastics. Sabkhas form subaerial, prograding and shoaling-upward sequences that have an average thickness of a meter or less. The accepted type locality is along the coast of the Persian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates.

The origin and progression of sabkha development in the Persian Gulf is discussed by Al-Farraj (2005). In the khor-lagoon-sabkha model, an initial rise in sea-level floods coastal areas and creates shallow water features. If 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, 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. An immature sabkha will 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 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. The flatness of a sabkha is enhanced by aeolian siliciclastic dust being deposited in the topographic lows with most of the relief caused by evaporites.

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