AMADEUS, LAKE

salty mud basin in southwestern Northern Territory, Australia. The lake occupies a shallow trough filled with sediments washed from the MacDonnell (north) and Musgrave (south) ranges. It intermittently contains a few inches of water and at such times may measure as much as 90 miles (145 km) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide, covering some 340 square miles (880 square km). When dry, it is a playa, or salt flat. The explorer Ernest Giles visited the lake in 1872 and named it for Amadeus, then king of Spain. Some cattle, sustained by underground water, are raised in the vicinity, and natural gas is exploited north of the lake. Lake Neale is a similar feature to the northwest.