Endorheic

In extreme conditions of dryness, desert arises which does not properly exist in Brazil since, according to most geomorphologists, desertification only occurs under endorrhoeic conditions, that is, with the salinization of river basins.

[I]n some cases channels leading towards the sea may exist in an endorheic region, in which, however, there is so little rain that the entire load in the water-courses is lost through evaporation before it can reach the mouths of the channels. On the other hand all closed lakes of the kind now being considered must lie in endorheic regions.

In the floor of the Rift Valley most of the streams are affected by the tectonic disturbances and are mostly fault-guided besides being endoreic.

The calanoid species more frequent in the Pyrenees is Diaptomus cyaneus, species with a relict occurrence in Dalmatia, endorreic and litoral lagoons of the western Mediterranean countries and frequent in the Pyrenees and in the North African Atlas.

In other cases, the basin may be large but the water-supply so low that there is no outflow and water leaves only by evaporation. The catchment-derived water-supply, in evaporating, leaves salts and the basin becomes an endorheic (internally drained) salt lake.

During the Pleistocene, the Ajusco closed the fluvial drainage to form the endoreic basin, which initiated sediment accumulation that eventually covered more than half of the valley [...].

The basin of Lake Zempoala is endorreic. Precipitation and running off from the watershed are the only source of water income whose budget is not balanced: annual precipitation and evaporation are 1200–1500 mm and 1600 mm, respectively [...].

Tibetan lakes in the endorheic basins serve as a sensitive indicator to regional climate and water cycle variability.