The white deposit covering the area is salt. That area was/is used as an overflow for the Great Salt Lake. (I remember reading some years ago how it was flooding regularly, so pumping stations were set up to distribute the extra water over a flat area of desert to the west.)

If I had to take a wild guess I'd say the geometric shapes are shallow berms or dikes, possibly set up to concentrate the water for salt harvesting. You can see similar shapes at the southern end of the Salt Lake itself.