The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features one of the largest salt pans in the world, which covers 10,000 square miles of desert and dry savanna in Botswana.

The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans are the remains of Lake Makgadikgadi, a massive inland sea body that once covered an area the size of Switzerland thousands of years ago.

During the rainy season, water from the Boteti and Nata rivers temporarily fills shallow lakes and ponds, creating diverse grasslands.

This image was captured on June 10 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory