Salt pan (geology) salt ions dissolved in the water. Over thousands of years, the minerals (usually salts) accumulate on the surface. These minerals reflect the sun's rays (through radiation) and often appear as white areas. Salt pans can be dangerous. The crust of salt can conceal a quagmire of mud that can engulf a truck. The Qattara Depression in the eastern Sahara Desert contains many such traps which served as strategic barriers during World War II. The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where many land speed records have been set, are a well-known salt pan in the arid regions of the western United
Utah State Fair through the Salt Lake Valley of what is today Utah. With the high rugged Rocky Mountains on the east and miles of unfriendly, hot, dry desert and salt flats on the west, most of these early explorers and settlers found the climate and land an inhospitable environment in which to settle. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) had been established in 1830 by Joseph Smith in New York. Due to religious persecution, the group moved further and further west, yearning for a land to settle in which they could practice their religion. Following the murder of