15. a) Explain why humid climates are necessary for the development of karst landscapes. b) Explain what impact air pollution and acid rain would have on karst landscapes.
Transcribed Image Text: the stages of the Geographical Cycle. Some
Humid areas with limestone bedrock
chart are: size of streams, direction of ero-
sion, dominant processes, slope of the rivers,
from a given storm, and specific locations
more. Due to a sparse vegetation cover
Ih each of
cases, rain may not occur for a year
bands of the landscape receive rainfall
receive rainfall infrequently. In some
drainage is underground, with few surface
Caves, with their spectacular stalactites and
rivers or lakes despite the humid climates.
features created in karst landscapes.
d the
13. Draw up a cha
characteristics you might include in
your
and
at influ-
e river.
influ-
sion, dominant processes, slope of the river
typical landforms, and uses of the rivers
ce
ogic
13•3 Karst Landscapes
phoog
develop special landform features known
as karst landscapes, named after a lime
stone region in Slovenia. The conditions
necessary for the development of karst
landscapes are beds of thick, hard, frac-
tured limestone at the earth's surface, a
humid climate, and fairly high relief
(mountains, foothills, or plateau areas).
The most characteristic surface features
of karst landscapes are the many pits and
hollows formed when water dissolves solu-
ble limestone rocks. Streams often enter
fissures in the rocks and disappear under-
ground. In many karst areas, most of thne
e four
erial.
me
ys in
ns.
cter-
your
CHAPTER 13: HUMID AND ARID ENVIRONMENTS
267
stalagmites, are part of the underground
Karst Landforms
Water, moving over limestone rock sur-
faces, creates solution furrows or rills, a
few millimetres to several metres in
length. The rills drain into hollows on
rock surfaces. Rainpits form where drops
of rainwater dissolve hollows into level
rock surfaces. As these pits grow larger,
they often hold water in small pools. Deep
cracks, or grikes, from 15 to 60 cm in
width, are created by solution along frac-
tures or weaknesses in limestone rocks.
Where limestone is dissolved over a long
Figure 13.9
Pitted Land Surface of a Karst
Landscape, Slovenia
period, large, enclosed, cone- or bowl-
shaped hollows, known as dolines, form
where streams drop into underground cav-
ern systems. Others are formed by the col-
lapse of caves below ground level. Dolines
often occur in groups, giving a 'pitted
appearance that is a characteristic feature
of karst landscapes. The photo in Figure
13.9 shows a typical doline-studded karst
landscape. As the dolines grow together,
they create large, flat-bottomed and steep-
sided depressions known as uvalas. Where
uvalas grow into large basins and valleys,
they are known as poljes.
Many karst drainage features cannot be
observed easily since they are underground.
Rivers commonly sink through cracks in
the limestone and flow completely, or par-
tially, below ground, leaving behind dry
valleys. Only during periods of heavy rain-
fall will water flow in these "dry" valleys.
Where they occur above ground, rivers usu-
ally occupy deep, steep-sided gorges, since
the water cuts down quickly into the lime-
stone through solution and abrasion.
Underground rivers and water continue to
dissolve limestone as they travel through
the rocks. As time passes, the fissures are
enlarged to form underground cavern sys-
tems that can extend for kilometres.
Uvala
Doline
rigure 13.10 Large-Scale Features of a Karst Landscape
NATUR
UNIT 5
268
It is only in caverns that depositional
features are to be found with any regular-
ity. Deposits of calcium carbonate (CaCO,)
- also called calcite
seeps out of the rock into an open cavern.
The two most common depositional fea-
tures are stalactites and stalagmities. Sta-
lactites are calcite tubes or cones that
grow downward from cavern ceilings. Sta-
lagmites grow upward from the cavern
floor and are usually much wider than sta-
lactites. Many famous caverns have spec-
tacular displays of stalactites, stalagmites,
and other unusual depositional features,
made up of calcium carbonate. One exam-
ple is illustrated in Figure 13.11.
– occur where water
Underground Cavern, Carlsbad
Figure 13.11
Caverns National Park, New Mexico
It's a Fact...
The world's largest known natural underground room is the Sarawak
Chamber, found in the Good Luck Cave in Mulu National Park in Borneo
(Kalimantan), Indonesia. It is 700 m long, 400 m wide, and never less than
70 m in height and could hold 17 football fields!
QUESTIONS
13-4 Arid Landscapes
Arid landscapes develop
where the rate of evapora-
14. Describe how
region in which you live, or through which
you are travelling, is a karst landscape.
15. a) Explain why humid climates are necessary
for the development of karst landscapes.
b) Explain what impact air pollution and acid
rain would have on karst landscapes.
16. Explain why karst landscapes are:
a) potentially dangerous or difficult areas in
which to build urban areas;
b) often excellent areas to develop for tourism.
you
would determine if the
tion is greater than the
annual precipitation. Precip-
itation, when it does come,
is often a result of convec-
tional rainfall and is brief
11•6
and intense. This means that only
narrow
or