The word playa comes from Spanish and translates into English as “shore” or “beach.” As early as the late 1800s, however, the term playa was adopted for use in geomorphology in reference to the ephemeral lakes in the Great Basin of North America. To complicate things, playa is not the only name applied to these features, and names vary geographically, sometimes even at the local scale. [Source: Encyclopedia of Geography; Playas]
geomorphology
playas
concepts