endorheic

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of a basin or lake: having no outflow to an external body of water such as a river or ocean, and only losing water through evaporation or seepage into the ground.

   “[I]n some cases channels leading towards the sea may exist in an endorheic region, in which, however, there is so little rain that the entire load in the water-courses is lost through evaporation before it can reach the mouths of the channels. On the other hand all closed lakes of the kind now being considered must lie in endorheic regions.”

   “In the floor of the Rift Valley most of the streams are affected by the tectonic disturbances and are mostly fault-guided besides being endoreic.”

   “The calanoid species more frequent in the Pyrenees is Diaptomus cyaneus, species with a relict occurrence in Dalmatia, endorreic and litoral lagoons of the western Mediterranean countries and frequent in the Pyrenees and in the North African Atlas.”

   “In extreme conditions of dryness, desert arises which does not properly exist in Brazil since, according to most geomorphologists, desertification only occurs under endorrhoeic conditions, that is, with the salinization of river basins.”

   “In other cases, the basin may be large but the water-supply so low that there is no outflow and water leaves only by evaporation. The catchment-derived water-supply, in evaporating, leaves salts and the basin becomes an endorheic (internally drained) salt lake.”