WITHDRAWN: The economic importance of salted reeds and the factors affecting it geographically

Abstract

Studying Qasab Salt Flats as an internal sabkha is important since it represents a unique model in the Al-Washem region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Distinctive morphological features surrounded by some of an aerial origin, others of a flood origin, and the third group of rocky appearance, also characterize it. All these factors have combined with the climate in forming this geomorphological phenomenon; this is what we observe in the sabkha al-qasb, one of the internal composts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's arid environment. The salinity of the al-qasb is located in the Al-Washem area, west of Tuwaiq Mountain, and has an area of 33.6 km2. The climate, geology, topography, and the internal drainage system are the main factors that led to its formation. The study area includes four terrain units: the first is the salted ground itself, the second is flood features, floods, and squares, the third is dunes and sand beds, and the fourth is the leveling surfaces covered with saline soil of little thickness. Saline weathering is one of the most critical dangers to which buildings, facilities, and roads are exposed in the study area. The salt crust above the sabkha is the essential source of the saline weathering process as the rate of evaporation increases on the rate of precipitation, especially in the summer, which increases the precipitation of salts, the thickness of the salt crust in the sabkha increases. The field study clarified the current use of sabkha and the possibility of benefiting from the marsh environment through industrial development and using the mineral and chemical elements from sabkha deposits.