Component-I (A) - Personal Details

Role
Name Affiliation
Principal Investigator
Prof. Masood Ahsan Department of
Siddiqui Geography,
Jamia Millia Islamia
Paper Coordinator, if any Dr. Syed Zaheen Alam Department of Geography,
Dayal Singh College, , DU
Content Writer/Author
(CW) Dr. Taruna Bansal Department of
Geography,Jamia Millia
Islamia
Content Reviewer (CR)

Language Editor (LE)

Component-I (B) - Description of Module

Items
Description of Module
Subject Name
Geography
Paper Name
Geomorphology
Module Name/Title The Karst Landforms and Cycle of Erosion

Module Id
GEO/24
Pre-requisites

Objectives

Keywords
 The Karst Landforms and Cycle of Erosion
Taruna Bansal
Karst is a landscape which is underlain by limestone and has been eroded by dissolution,
producing towers, fissures, sinkholes, etc. It is so named after a province of earlier
Yugoslavia on the Adriatic sea coast where such formations are most noticeable. The
development of all karst landforms requires the presence of rocks such as limestone,
dolomite, and gypsum which is capable of being dissolved by surface water or ground
water.
In simple words, the term karst describes a distinctive topography that
indicates dissolution (also called chemical solution) of underlying soluble rocks by surface
water or ground water. Although commonly associated with carbonate rocks (limestone and
dolomite) other highly soluble rocks such as evaporates (gypsum and rock salt) can be
sculpted into karst terrain. Understanding karst is important because approximately ten
percent of the Earth's surface is occupied by karst landscape and as much as a quarter of the
world's population depends upon water supplied from karst areas. Though most abundant in
humid regions where carbonate rock is present, karst terrain occurs in temperate, tropical,
alpine and polar environments also. It is a dry, upland landscape with underground drainage
instead of surface streams

The Karst Topography

The degree of development of karst landforms varies greatly from region to region. Large
drainage systems in karst areas are likely to have both fluvial (surface) and karst
(underground) drainage components. As stated in the introduction, the term karst describes a
distinctive topography that indicates dissolution of underlying rocks by surface water or
ground water.
 Water falls as rain or snow and seeps into the limestone through small channels and
moves underground through a network of subterranean channels and caves. The water
becomes weakly acidic because it reacts chemically with carbon dioxide that occurs naturally
in the atmosphere and the soil. This acid is named carbonic acid and is the same compound
that makes carbonated beverages taste tangy. Rainwater seeps downward through the soil and
through fractures in the rock responding to the force of gravity. The carbonic acid in the
moving ground water dissolves the bedrock along the surfaces of joints, fractures and
bedding planes, eventually forming cave passages and caverns.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock consisting primarily of calcium carbonate in the form of the
mineral calcite. Rainwater dissolves the limestone by the following reaction:
Calcite + Carbonic acid = Calcium ions dissolved in ground water + Bicarbonate ions
dissolved in ground water.
Cracks and joints that interconnect in the soil and bedrock allow the water to reach a
zone below the surface of the land where all the fractures and void spaces are completely
filled (also known as saturated) with water. This water-rich zone is called the saturated zone
and its upper surface is called the water table. The volume of void space (space filled with
air or water) in soil or bedrock is termed porosity. Larger the proportion of voids in a given
volume of soil or rock; greater is the porosity. When these voids are interconnected, water or
air (or other fluids) can migrate from void to void. Thus the soil or bedrock is said to
be permeable because fluids (air and water) can easily move through them. Permeable
bedrock makes a good aquifer, a rock layer that holds and conducts water. If the ground water
that flows through the underlying permeable bedrock is acidic and the bedrock is soluble, a
distinctive type of topography, karst topography, can be created.

Conditions essential for development of Karst Topography:

1. Presence of soluble rocks, preferably limestone at the surface or sub-surface level.
2. These rocks should be dense, highly jointed and thinly bedded.
3. Presence of entrenched valleys below the uplands underlain by soluble and well- jointed
rocks. This favours the ready downward movement of groundwater through the rocks.
4. The rainfall should be neither too high nor too low.
5. There should be a perennial source of water.

Erosional Landforms:
The landforms in the Karst landscape develop on three scales ranging from a scale of less
than 10 m – these include varieties of solution pits, pans or grooves collectively known as
“karren”; to intermediate scale features ranging approximately from 1 to 1000 m namely
dolines or sinkholes to large scale forms where landforms are normally greater than 1 km in
length e.g poljes, dry valleys or gorges. Most of the karst landscapes are formed by the
combination of all these landforms and sometimes may extend for thousands of square
kilometres.
A great diversity of forms and combinations occur in the karst terrains found in
different parts of the world. This diversity in the landforms is the product of physical and
chemical variations in the rocks themselves; geologic structure; tectonic and geomorphic
history; regional topography; and past and present climatic conditions. Various scholars have
studied this diversity at regional level for many countries. Some prominent studies include
work of Gams (1974) for Yugoslavia, Jakucs (1977) for Hungary, Gvozdetskij (1981) for the
USSR and Zhang (1980) for the People’s Republic of China.
In the following section the landforms formed due to erosional processes have been
discussed. Since each one of the landform is distinct in nature, it is apparent that one
understands every one of them.

1. Karren/Lapies:
Karrens are highly corrugated and rough surface of limestone lithology with low ridges and
pinnacles. These are formed when rain falls onto bare limestone or waves break into it.
Therefore, falling droplets, sheet and channelled runoff, film flow and ponded water all create
small scale solution forms also termed as lapies. The most commonly form found are circular
pits with rounded bottoms and pans with flat bottoms, sinuous channels and descending
slopes where joints or dipping bedding planes have opened up.

2. Terra Rosa- These are red claystones up to several meters thick and kilometres across that
occur at the earth’s surface. These are thought to be formed by residual dissolution of
limestones and/or by accumulation of detrial mud, ash or dust on pre-existing karst terrain.

3. Limestone Pavement – These are only found in places that were covered by ice during the
last ice age. They are formed in some beds of limestones where following characteristics are
found –
i) beds that do not contain many fractures
ii) beds that are more resistant to dissolution by rainwater
iii) beds that are mechanically stronger

4. Grikes – Grikes are vertical or near-vertical fissures in limestone pavement. In the initial
stage, the cracks pr fissures are only microscopic in size but as rainwater seeps in and
dissolves the limestone, the cracks become wider.
5. Solution Holes - Holes produced by dissolution of lime stones by chemically active
standing water. These are small, shallow, round and flat bottomed depressions or pools on the
limestone pavement. They are usually 5 – 30 cm wide.

6. Cavern:
This is an underground cave formed by water action by various methods in a limestone or
chalk area. There are differing views on the mode of formation of these caverns. The
Mechanical Action School represented by Penck, Weller and Dane considers mechanical
action by rock debris and pebbles to be responsible for cavern excavation. This school argues
that the water table is too low to have a solution effect. The Chemical Action School, on the
other hand, considers the solution action of water to be mainly responsible for cavern
excavation. This school is represented by Davis and Piper. The largest cavern in Kentucky
(USA) is 48 km long and 25 metres high. In India, such caves can be seen in Bastar,
Dehradun, Shillong plateau.

7. Arch/Natural Bridge:
These are formed due to collapse of the roofs of caves or due to disappearance of surface
streams and their reappearance; which keeps standing forming an arch.

8. Sink Hole/Swallow Hole:

Sink holes are funnel-shaped depressions having an average depth of three to nine metres
and, in area, may vary from one square metre to more. These holes are developed by
enlargement of the cracks found in such rocks, as a result of continuous solvent action of the
rainwater. The swallow holes are cylindrical tunnel-like holes lying underneath the sink hole
at some depth. The surface streams which sink disappear underground through swallow holes
because these are linked with underground caves through vertical shafts.

9. Karst Window:
When a number of adjoining sink holes collapse, they form an open, broad area called a karst
window.

10. Karst Plain:

Upper surface having several sink holes is called karst plain.

11. Sinking Creek:

Numerous sink holes located in a line.

12. Dolines:
Dolines are bowl shaped enclosed depressions in the Karst terrain that can be several metres
to several hundred metres in range. The formation of dolines is associated with four distinct
processes that usually operate alone. These are –
i) Solution, acting downward
ii) Mechanical collapse
iii) Subsidence without rupture into an inter-stratal solution cavity and
iv) Sapping or seepage erosion into caves or adjoining dolines.
Mostly, two or three of the above mentioned processes operate together to develop or
enlarge a depression. These range from cylindrical shafts to shallow saucers although
intermediate funnel and bowl shapes are more common.

13. Karst Lakes:

When Dolines plugged by clay are filled with water karst lakes are formed.

14. Uvala:
A number of adjoining dolines may come together to form a large depression called uvala.

15. Polje:
A number of uvalas may coalesce to create a valley called polje which is actually a flat-
floored depression. An ideal polje is an elongated, flat-floored, closed depression surrounded
by limestone hills that are well karstified.

16. Sinking Creeks/Bogas:

In a valley, the water often gets lost through cracks and fissures in the bed. These are called
sinking creeks, and if their tops are open, they are called bogas.

17. Dry Valley/Hanging Valley/Bourne:

Sometimes, a stream cuts through an impermeable layer to reach a limestone bed. It erodes so
much that it goes very deep. The water table is also lowered. Now the tributaries start serving
the subterranean drainage and get dried up. These are dry valleys or bournes. Lack of
adequate quantities of water and reduced erosion leaves them hanging at a height from the
main valley. Thus, they are also referred to as hanging valleys.

18. Blind Valleys:

If the streams lose themselves in these valleys, then these are called blind valley. These
valleys may have surface streams and may be used for agriculture. In other worrds when
streams become deeply entrenched creating valleys within the paleovalley a blind valley is
formed.
Erosional and Depositional Karst Landforms
Depositional Landforms:
Water is also responsible for the formation of a large number of depositional landforms in a
karst landscape. Chemically saturated water degasses as it drips, pools, flows and percolates
in the below ground karst environment. In the following section, some of the landforms
formed due to deposition process have been discussed.
1. Speleothems:
Deposits in the karstic caves are collectively called ‘Speleothems’; these are crystalline
deposits of calcium carbonate as a result precipitation from dilute aqueous solutions entering
the cave, typically as drips from the roof.

2. Travertines:
Banded calcareous deposits are called Travertines

3. Drip Stones:
These are calcareous deposits formed by dripping-of water in dry caves or caverns. These can
only form when a cave is at or above the water table where water can evaporate. When
groundwater drips from the roof of a limestone cave, it slowly deposits calcite. Several types
of drip stones are found in karstic caves. Stalactitis, stalagmites, cave pillars, drapes,
helictites and heligmites are such drip stones found in a karst cavern.
i) Stalactites and Stalagmites:
The water containing limestone in solution seeps through the roof of caverns in the form of a
continuous chain of drops. A portion of the roof hangs on the roof and on evaporation of
water, a small deposit of limestone is left behind contributing to the formation of a stalactite,
growing downwards from the roof.
The remaining portion of the drop falls to the floor of the cavern. This also evaporates,
leaving behind a small deposit of limestone aiding the formation of a stalagmite, thicker and
flatter, rising upwards from the floor.
ii) Cave Pillars:
Sometimes, stalactite and stalagmite join together to form a complete pillar known as the
column.
iii) Drapes or curtains:
Numerous needle shaped dripstones hanging from the cave ceiling.
iv) Helictites:
Sideward growth from stalactites.
v) Helgmites:
Sideward growth from stalagmites.

The Karst Cycle of Erosion:

W.M. Davis has been credited for standardizing the various stages in the evolution of
landforms under normal climatic conditions where rivers flow upon the surface of the ground.
He along with Passarge provided cycle of erosion in arid conditions. But these cycles cannot
be used to describe the forms that evolve in a karst terrain. It was only in 1918 when Cvijic
provided an ordered description of successive changes that take place in the progress of the
karst cycle. Karst topography develops mainly in limestone and dolomite regions because the
response of these rocks to weathering is different from other rocks. This is mainly because of
solubility of calcium carbonate in natural waters. In karst terrain water circulates almost
entirely underground. The basic assumption for the occurrence of all stages of evolution is a
mass of pure limestone which is soluble and is formed of strata inclined at a great angle but
without disruptions from crushing or faulting. Another important criterion is the thickness of
the limestone mass; it should not have a thick protective covering of vegetation and must
have a developed system of streams.
Cvijic also opined that there are three hydrographic zones in a well developed karst
landscape. These are –
i) The zone immediately underneath the surface is compiled of channels and reservoirs
which transmit water in time of storm but are generally dry.
ii) The inter-mediated zone lies between dry and wet where caverns and channels are
generally flooded for considerable time but not permanently.
iii) The lowest zone lies immediately above the underlying impermeable strata; this zone
has permanent streams and reservoirs which are always full of water.
He further states that there are four stages in the evolution of landforms in a karst terrain:
youth, maturity, late maturity and old age.
(i) Youthful Stage:
The youth begins with surface drainage on an initial limestone surface or one that has been
laid bare and is marked by a progressive expansion of underground drainage. This stage is
marked with imperfect underground drainage that leaves most of the rain on the ground
surface; although the cracks and crevices of the rock are filled with water. Wherever the
limestone is exposed to the rain the ground is now covered by a network of furrows eaten out
of the rock by the dissolving water. These have been named differently such as Karren or
rascles. Cvijiv uses the term lapies for such landforms. When water penetrates through lines
of weakness such as faults, bedding plane of joints, these deep and narrow chasms are eroded
and form what Cvijic calls bogaz. Slowly these furrows and chasms are deepened and
underground channels are created and the surface streams disappear in the ground leaving
their valleys dry- either wholly or in part. Such valleys are called blind valleys.
There is beginning of normal valley cutting in elongated depressions of tectonic
origins i.e poljes begin to appear along with scattered dolines – a funnel shaped depression.
Permanent lakes also exist. No great caverns are yet formed as only one hydrographic zone
has established. By late youth two zones may be distinguished – an upper zone which is
flooded intermittently and a lower zone which is entirely saturated. Therefore, this stage is
marked by a progressive loss of surface drainage. Rivers flowing above the ground start
disappearing. Examples of such topography may be found in Tennessee, Kentucky and
Virginia in the United States.

(ii) Mature Stage:

In the mature stage there is maximum development of underground drainage as teh
subterranean system is adequately developed to carry off all the surface water. As now all the
surface water is carried immediately underground no lakes exist unless the depressions are so
deep that they dip below the upper level of the saturated zone. So the presence of intermittent
lakes is common. Large number of caves and caverns characterize this stage developing a full
network of caverns and channels permeating the entire mass of limestone. Surface drainage
is limited to short sinking creeks which end in swallow holes and blind valleys. This stage is
characterized by the development of thousands of swallow holes and dolines. This stage
represents the maximum development of karst topography with all its characteristic
landforms. Such topography is found to have developed in the Dinaric coastal strip of the
Adriatic Sea.

(iii) Late Maturity Stage:

Late maturity in the Karst cycle begins with the decay and decline of karst topography as now
the limestone is gradually stripped off the underlying impermeable strata. As this happens the
drainage can no longer flow underground and surface streams reappear. Initially they are not
above ground for long distance, occurring most frequently where the limestone mass has been
eroded as well as undermined by the extension of subterranean caverns. Various feature of
the karst topography expand and coalesce to form uvalas. Poljes with their hums are to be
seen on the surface. All over the karst region, cavern after cavern falls in and gorges are
created everywhere. The polje flow is again covered in part by an intermittent lake and
streams flowing in gorges exist side by side with dolines and uvalas.
(iv) Old Stage:
With the beginning of the old stage there is return to surface drainage. Now, the caverns
collapse, leaving open, flat-floored valleys. Solution activity has removed most of the
limestone formations. The process of un-roofing of caverns and regressive erosion takes
place at both the edges of the plateau and along the sides of the gorges where the streams cut
back and capture the dolines and uvalas. As a result, the karst windows, natural tunnels and
bridges and other solution features disappear. Only isolated knolls remain as remnants of the
former limestone surface which are mere shells honeycombed with caverns. A normal system
of surface streams is now in possession of the land which was formerly dominated by
limestone mass. These landforms may be found in Natural Bridge County, Virginia and in the
Causse of central France.
These stages can be best understood through the following diagrams:
Stages of Karst Cycle of Erosion
Bibliography:

 Dougherty, Percy H., editor, 1985, Caves and Karst of Kentucky, Kentucky Geological
Survey Special Publications 12 Series XI, 196 pages.
 Gurnee, Russell and Gurnee, Jeane, 1980, Gurnee Guide to American Caves, Zephyrus Press,
Teaneck, New Jersey. (A comprehensive guide to caves in the U.S. which are open to the
public)
 Jennings, Joseph N., 1971, Karst, An Introduction to Systematic Geomorphology, Vol. 7,
The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, England, 252 pages.
 Moore, George W., and Sullivan, Nicholas, 1997, Speleology, Caves and the Cave
Environment, 3rd edition, Cave Books, St. Louis, MO, 176 pages.
 U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey - Geology of Caves, U.S.
Geological Survey General Interest Publication, 19 pages.
 White, William B., 1988, Geomorphology and Hydrology of Karst Terrains, Oxford
University Press, New York, 464 pages.
 Zumwalt, Gary, ed., 1997, The MSS Liaison (Newsletter of the Missouri Speleological
Survey), vol. 37, nos. 8-9, p. 2.