How can faulting create basins that later become playas?

Faulting creates basins that can become playas primarily through the formation of tectonic depressions known as grabens.12

This process typically occurs when the Earth's crust undergoes extension, causing it to fracture. As adjacent crustal blocks move apart, a central block drops downward into the resulting gap, creating a steep-sided, flat-floored valley or basin. In other instances, faulting may create a depression through the tilting of a fault block against a higher, adjacent block.32

Once these enclosed basins are formed, they serve as collection points for water and sediment in arid or semiarid regions. Because these basins have interior drainage and are located in areas where evaporation exceeds inflow, they periodically fill with water—forming temporary lakes—and then dry out. Through the repeated cycles of inundation and evaporation, fine-grained sediments and salts accumulate on the basin floor, eventually developing into the flat, characteristic surface of a playa. Notable examples of such basins include Death Valley and the East African Rift Valley.1452