What is "soda lake"

n. A lake, fed by alkaline springs, that has no outlet

Soda Lake (or Soda Dry Lake) is a dry lake at the terminus of the Mojave River in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California. The lake has standing water during wet periods, and water can be found beneath the surface.

Soda Lake along with Silver Lake are what remains of the large, perennial, Holocene Lake Mojave. The waters of the lake, now with no outlet, evaporate and has left alkaline evaporites of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate.

Soda Lake is located on the southern side of Interstate 15, and can be seen at the Zzyzx Road interchange and the Oat Ditch bridge, as well as the Soda Lake bridge (signed as the Mojave River) looking south from Baker.

Soda Lake is a shallow, ephemeral, alkali endorheic lake in the Carrizo Plain in southeastern San Luis Obispo County, California. The lake is located on the southwest side of the northern Carrizo Plain, east of San Luis Obispo. It can be reached by Soda Lake Road, which runs northwest–southeast between State Route 166 and State Route 58. The lake is at an elevation of and covers an area of about .

A soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality (in other words, a pH value above 7, typically between 9 - 12). They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate (and related salt complexes), giving rise to their alkalinity. In addition, many soda lakes also contain high concentrations of sodium chloride and other dissolved salts, making them saline- or hypersaline lakes as well. High pH and salinity often coincide, because of how soda lakes develop (see "Geology, geochemistry and genesis"). The resulting hypersaline and highly alkalic soda lakes are considered some of the most extreme aquatic environments on Earth.

In spite of their apparent inhospitability, soda lakes are often highly productive ecosystems, compared to their (pH-neutral) freshwater counterparts. Gross primary production ( photosynthesis) rates above 10 g C m day (grams carbon per square meter per day), over 16 times the global average for lakes and streams (0.6 g C m day), have been measured. This makes them the most productive aquatic environments on Earth. An important reason for the high productivity is the virtually unlimited availability of dissolved carbon dioxide.

Soda lakes occur naturally throughout the world (see Table below), typically in arid and semi-arid areas and in connection to tectonic rifts like the East African Rift Valley. The pH of most freshwater lakes is on the alkaline side of neutrality and many exhibit similar water chemistries to soda lakes, only less extreme.

Soda lake is a lake in Grant County, Washington, United States.