Karst Topography

Karst (in German) topography is the name for the many landforms that developed on the surface and within soluble rocks as caves and other forms characteristic of a part of the Kras region of Slovenia, where the landforms developed on and in some 400 square kilometers of limestone (calcium carbonate) and were first studied many years ago. All rocks can be slightly soluble in water, with the result that various karstic landforms can also develop more slowly in the somewhat less soluble magnesium carbonate of dolomite or dolostone, as well as quite quickly in evaporate rocks such as rock salt or gypsum. In fact, some solubility can even occur slowly in silicate rocks such as sandstone, especially where it is cemented with carbonate minerals, or ...