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bolson
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bolson

landform
Also known as: pampa
Written and fact-checked by
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History

bolson, (from Spanish bolsón, “large purse”), a semiarid, flat-floored desert valley or depression, usually centred on a playa or salt pan and entirely surrounded by hills or mountains. It is a type of basin characteristic of basin-and-range terrain. The term is usually applied only to certain basins of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.