white alkali

noun

Agriculture. a whitish layer of mineral salts, especially sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulfate, often occurring on top of soils where rainfall is low.
refined soda ash.

white alkali

refined sodium carbonate
any of several mineral salts, esp sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulphate, that often appear on the surface of soils as a whitish layer in dry conditions

The sun had lifted over the rim of the desert, a red disc which turned the gleaming white alkali patches to rose.

In some parts there were fields of white alkali, making the lips salt and the eyes smart painfully.

Why, having in view these white alkali-patches that chiefly characterize Nevada, paint her as a leper.

He took off his Stetson and removed its thin powdering of white alkali dust by slapping it noisily against his leather chaps.

White alkali is not so fatal, yet many good shepherds lose lambs by allowing them to nibble around alkali beds.

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