Fig. I Saline Seep Formation 



Precipitation 



I 



Upland Fallow Field 

 (recharge area) 



Swale(discharge area) 



Saline Seep 



^T ? < 



\/v:t>'*.,M 



Impermeable Shale 



^JKjt-^^Water Table<Os^^ 



HISTORY 



Patches of alkali dotted the northern plains before the white 

 settlers arrived. Lewis and Clark referred to them in their journals: 

 "The salts which have been mentioned as common on the Missouri 

 are here so abundant that in many places the ground appears perfectly 

 white, and from this circumstance the river may have derived its 

 name (8). " These spots persist today, mostly on rangeland, but are 

 apparently nothing more than static, residual salt accumulations from 

 Sonne natural evaporative process working over geologic time. Unlike 



