BULLETIN OF THE 



D 



No. 54: 



Contribution from the Bureau of Soils, Milton Whitney, Chie 

 May 8, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



THE TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF THE DESERT BASINS OF 

 THE UNITED STATES WITH REFERENCE TO THE POSSIBLE 

 OCCURRENCE OF POTASH. ^ 



By E. E. Free, Scientist in Fertilizer Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In essence the "desert basin" or "dry lake" potash theory is very 

 simple and rests upon three propositions: 



(1) Rocks and soils give up various salts, including those of potas- 

 sium, to drainage waters which flow over them. 



(2) In areas of inclosed drainage these salts, still including those 

 of potassium, are concentrated wherever the waters evaporate. 



(3) In this concentration the salts of potassium may have been 

 sufficiently segregated from other salts to form a workable deposit. 



It has long been known that a considerable section of the United 

 States is undrained and apparently contains regions satisfying the 

 conditions requisite to potash ^ concentration. The problem set the 

 writer, early in the present Governmental investigation into possible 

 potash resources, was the study of all of these undrained areas, or 

 "desert basins," in the effort to determine which of them, if any, 

 might possibly contain potash deposits, and which could reasonably 

 be considered the more favorable from this point of view. The 

 problem is a complex one and includes at least three distinct and 

 different questions: (1) The question of accumulation; or of source, 

 concentration and retention; (2) the question of segregation of the 

 potash from the other salts; and (3) the question of the accessibility 



1 Manuscript prepared July, 1912. 



2 Throughout this bulletin the ■word " potash " is used in accordance with common usage, to signify any 

 ordinary soluble compound of the element potassium. 



Note. — This paper describes a topographical examination which has been made of the desert basins 

 of the United States, with a view to the possible discovery of potash in commercial quantities, and 

 is intended particularly for those interested in the production of fertilizers. 



19750°— Bull 54—14 1 



