Humboldt Sink is an intermittent dry lake

Dry lake

Dry lakes are ephemeral lakebeds, or a remnant of an endorheic lake. Such flats consist of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali salts. Dry lakes are also referred to as alkali flats, sabkhas, playas or mud flats...

 bed, approximately 11 mi (18 km) long, and 4 mi (6 km) across, in northwestern Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake

Lake Humboldt

Lake Humboldt or Humboldt Lake is a lake in northern Churchill County and southern Pershing County in the state of Nevada in the United States....

.

Humboldt Sink is located between the West Humboldt Range

West Humboldt Range

The West Humboldt Range is a short mountain range in the western Great Basin in northwestern Nevada in the United States. It runs for approximately 40 mi southwest to northeast in northern Churchill County and southern Pershing County...

 (to the southeast) and the Trinity Range

Trinity Range

The Trinity Range is a mountain range in Pershing County, Nevada....

 (to the northwest), on the border between Pershing

Pershing County, Nevada

Pershing County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 6,693. Its county seat is Lovelock. The county was named after army general John J. Pershing . It was formed from Humboldt County in 1919, and the last county to be established in...

 and Churchill

Churchill County, Nevada

Churchill County is a county located in the western U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 23,982. As of July 1, 2007, the population of Churchill County was estimated at 27,190. The county, named after Mexican-American War hero brevet Brigadier General Sylvester Churchill,...

 counties, approximately 50 mi (80 km) northeast of Reno

Reno, Nevada

Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

. It is fed from the northeast by the 330 mile (530 km) long Humboldt River

Humboldt River

The Humboldt River runs through northern Nevada in the western United States. At approximately long it is the second longest river in the Great Basin, after the Bear River. It has no outlet to the ocean, but instead empties into the Humboldt Sink...

, the second longest river in the Great Basin

Great Basin

The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...

 of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 (after the Bear River

Bear River (Utah)

The Bear River is a river, approximately long, in southwestern Wyoming, southeastern Idaho, and northern Utah, in the United States. The largest tributary of the Great Salt Lake, it drains a mountainous area and farming valleys northeast of the lake and southeast of the Snake River Plain...

). Interstate 80 passes along the northwest side of the sink.

The sink has no natural outlet. A channel connecting it with the Carson Sink

Carson Sink

Carson Sink is a playa in the northeastern portion of the Carson Desert that was formerly the terminus of the Carson River. The sink is currently fed by drainage canals of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District...

 was cut by the Nevada Department of Transportation

Nevada Department of Transportation

The Nevada Department of Transportation is a government agency in the U.S. state of Nevada. NDOT is responsible for maintaining and improving Nevada's highway system, which includes U.S. highways and Interstate highways within the state's boundaries. The department is notable for its...

 in 1984 to prevent Interstate 80 and the town of Lovelock

Lovelock, Nevada

Lovelock is a city in western Nevada that is the county seat of Pershing County, the location of a prison, and the namesake of the area's Cold War gunnery range...

 from flooding due to heavy snowfall in the preceding three years. This channel has been dry since 1986. The sink, along with the Carson Sink are remnants of the larger prehistoric Lake Lahontan

Lake Lahontan

Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon...

 that existed at the end of the last ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

, approximately 13,000 years ago.

The sink is protected as part of Humboldt Wildlife Management Area. Wetlands in and near the sink such as the Humboldt Salt Marsh

Humboldt Salt Marsh

The Humboldt Salt Marsh in the Humboldt Basin of northeastern Nevada is a wetland that is 1 of 2 within the state .-References:...

 provide important nesting, foraging, and resting habitat to large numbers of migratory birds.

These landform

Landform

A landform or physical feature in the earth sciences and geology sub-fields, comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography...

s are named for the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 naturalist Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

.