bolson

plural bolsons

1. SouthwesternUSA relatively flat and arid valley that is surrounded by mountains and that drains into a central basin.

   The image of a colossal purse is helpful in envisioning a bolson in the landscape: an extensive, saucer-shaped basin, closed at the bottom and surrounded on all sides by mountain slopes.

   2011, Barry Lopez, Debra Gwartney, editors, Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, →ISBN, page 43

   2 more examples

   In three separate bolsons in West Texas, electrical-resistivity soundings and seismic-refraction profiles have been used . . . to estimate the alluvium thickness and ground-water quality.

   1974, U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey Research Professional Paper 900, p. 120 (Google preview)

   The water in the Mesilla Bolson, which is recharged by the river above it, is part of a major lawsuit between Texas and New Mexico. . . . A settlement could impose new restrictions on wells tapping the bolson in both states.

   2015 November 2, David Crowder, “El Paso’s low water rates to rise”, in El Paso Inc., retrieved 21 Nov 2015