Sabkha
![Sebkhat (or Sebkha) El Melah, Tunisia in 2001, mostly dry. Note rectangular industrial evaporite pans, probably for sea-salt production, upper right. Landsat 7 image.](/Images/godic/202502/10/Sebkha_El_Melah_-_20014633.jpg")
![Sebkhat El Melah in 1987, flooded. Landsat 5 image.](/Images/godic/202502/10/Sebkha_El_Melah_-_19874633.jpg")
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![Dunes and salt flats in the Empty Quarter - 2.](/Images/godic/202502/10/Rub-al-Khali_8004633.jpg")
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.