Rock features are important traces of the formation and development of karst surface. On various karren their record is especially rich, revealing to us the many factors that in diverse conditions ...formed the karst surface on various carbonate and other rock.We have tried to present the most characteristic rock features and through them the most important factors and processes in the formation of the karst surface, the methods of studying them, and the most outstanding examples.Forty-nine contributing authors offer a wide spectrum of content and examples of rock forms from many karst regions around the world.The first part of the book offers an orderly-organized survey and description of the most characteristic rock forms and presents the physical and chemical corrosion of rock, biocorrosion, the modeling of rock forms, their detailed morphometrics, and numerous descriptions of individual rock forms. The second part is devoted to various examples of rock forms found around the world from Slovenia through North and South America to Australia and Asia.
This paper explains the investigation of shallow and sediment-covered areas of the Dolenjska karst discovered during the construction of the motorway section between the villages of Hrastje and ...Lešnica. Research done during construction has again proved to be very useful; we came to numerous and augmentative conclusions about the development of karst features typical of the Dolenjska region. Again the importance of the participation of karst researchers in planning major activities concerning the karst and in monitoring the work was demonstrated. We have researched the unique features of the karst surface marked mostly by large areas of stone forests and characteristic karstification below the thick sediment beds.
Heaven’s Cave is located in the centre of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, about 500 km southern from the Vietnamese capital and 40 km from the city of Dong Hoi. Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park ...is protected also as a UNESCO world heritage site. Due to weak economic situation in this region as a result of lack of natural resources, karst tourism represents an important opportunity for raising the quality of live in the province. A proposal to adapt non-touristic Heaven’s Cave for tourism was presented to Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU in 2006. Because the caves are sensitive ecosystems and all activities in them should be carefully implemented, our task was to make basic survey and map the cave, to perform a speleological and touristic research, to propose possible interventions for adapting the cave for tourism and to prepare a strategy for tourism development in this area. The latter should also show us if some interest is present among tourists for new show cave in this region. From this point of view this study does not represent systematic long-term approach for adapting a cave for tourism but rather a short study of a cave with potential to be show cave in remote area of Central Vietnam. Approach used in this study should be used in similar environments as a first step to estimate if weakly known cave is environmentally and economically suitable for development for touristic purposes.Keywords: Heaven’s Cave, Thien Duong Cave, Phong Nha-Ke Bang, Vietnam, show cave.
Informal cooperation between Slovenian and Chinese karstologists started as early as 1980's, but the main boost was initiated after 1995 in the frame of several national and international projects. ...Fruitful long-term cooperation between the Karst Research Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Yunnan Institute of Geography, Yunnan University, successfully culminated in many joint research efforts, among which the research in Stone Forest (Shilin) in South China Karst was the most apparent one. Tourist visitation of the area, which has been protected since the 1930's, has risen significantly after 1978, when the territory was officially open for tourism. Close cooperation between Slovenian and Chinese researchers supported to unravel some mechanisms in the evolution of these natural phenomenon. The results assisted the successful candidature of Shilin's designation as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
The Lao Hei Gin stone forest is yet one more of the diverse and famed Lunan stone forests created from subcutaneous karren. The initial morphogenesis of the stone pillars started along almost ...horizontal bedding planes and mostly sub-vertical faults and cracks already covered by thick layers of sediments and soil. The forest’s stone pillars stand individually or in groups. The dominant and most characteristic shape of the pillars is mushroom-like, with alternating lithological characteristics of the carbonate beds expressed in a vertical direction.
The study of the formation and development of karst phenomena and their rock relief using laboratory plaster modeling has again proven useful and informative. We continued the study of subsoil karren ...that forms under tight, poorly permeable contact with soil and of rain flutes formed by water at various temperatures. We determined the pattern of the reshaping of plaster tubes that are wider at the flow inlet than at the outlet end. The results are a significant contribution to explaining the formation of high ceiling niches and pockets in karst caves. The third experiment was carried out in phreatic conditions where water in a flume was forced to flow between layers of different composition. During the experiment, we observed the typical development of channels between pure plaster layers (uniform limestone beds), between plaster layers with added Portland cement reinforced fragments (breccia beds), siporex (slowly dissolving beds) and between three different layer types.
In upper reaches of the Chang (Yangtze) river, in Deqen prefecture, in northwestern part of the Yunnan province, karst is developed in Devonian carbonate rocks. The Shuilian cave, more than a ...kilometre long, formed along the contact of fine bedded metamorphosed calcitized sandy siltstones and calcitized siltstones. The cave has two entrances, the upper one being dry and the lower entrance with a steady water flow. It is situated in the steep slope about 70 m above the river level (1,965 m a.s.l.). In the paper a detailed analysis of rocks that host the cave is presented, and also a comprehensive description of the rock morphology and shapes of the cave conduits. Physico-chemical properties of water from cave and from a nearby spring were measured. The temperature and speci$c electric conductivity determinations indicate a relatively long underground residence time of water which, however, relatively poorly dissolve slowly dissoluble base rock. This could be the explanation for stagnation of the karst deepening with respect to erosional downcutting of the river Chang. In addition, further research is proposed.
Mushroom Mountain karren with predominantly flat tops that formed along the stylolites and bedding planes dictated the special features of this karst landscape. Their features and rock relief clearly ...reflect the geological conditions and development. The subsoil karren with conical tops dissected by subsoil rock relief were exposed from beneath the soil. Below tree vegetation, the subsoil karren are to a great extent covered by moss and lichen, under which they acquire their characteristic shape. On the bare surface they were reshaped by rainwater that carves flutes and solution pans. The old cave that opens below the top of one of the cones reveals the period before its dissection into hills and cones when this part of the karst aquifer was still deep under the water table.
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