From the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, salt deserts around the world have become popular tourist destinations—vast, seemingly featureless, impossibly photogenic natural wonders. Although not all salt deserts are created the same, they appear to share a strange feature: what can be described as honeycomb-like patterns composed of low ridges emerging from the salty crust. The mechanism behind these mysterious polygons has had scientists scratching their heads for some time, with several hypotheses coming up short in providing a complete explanation for their…
