It is part of (or a surface feature of) the Amadeus Basin that was filled with the erosion products of the Petermann Orogeny.

Due to the aridity of the area, the surface of Lake Amadeus is usually a dry salt crust.

[5] Lake Amadeus contains up to 600 million tonnes of salt; however, harvesting it has not proved viable, owing to its remote location.

[6] The first European to arrive at the lake, the explorer Ernest Giles, encountered it in 1872.

As described by late Anangu elder Paddy Uluru, "wanampi had dug out the ground with a stick to form a lake, drew concentric circles in the land".