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KARST

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 683 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KARST , in See also:

physical See also:geography, the region See also:east of the See also:northern See also:part of the Adriatic. It is composed of high and dry See also:limestone ridges. The See also:country is excessively faulted by a See also:long See also:series of parallel fractures that border the N.E. Adriatic and continue inland that series of steps which descend beneath the See also:sea and produce the series of long parallel islands off the See also:coast of Triestand along the Dalmatian See also:shore. It has been shown by E. See also:Suess (Antlitz der Erde, vol. i. pt. 2, ch. iii.) that the N. Adriatic is a sunken dish that has descended along these fractures and folds, which are not uncommonly the See also:scene of earthquakes, showing that these movements are still in progress. The crust is very much broken in consequence and the See also:water sinks readily through the broken limestone rocks, which owing to their nature are also very absorbent. The result is that the scenery is barren and desolate, and as this structure always, wherever found, gives rise to similar features, a landscape of this See also:character is called a Karst landscape. The water See also:running in underground channels dissolves and denudes away the underlying See also:rock, producing See also:great caves as at See also:Adelsberg, and breaking the See also:surface with sinks, potholes and unroofed chasms. The barren nature of a purely limestone country is seen in the treeless regions of some parts of See also:Derbyshire, while the underground streams and sinks of parts of See also:Yorkshire, and the unroofed See also:gorge formed by the See also:Cheddar cliffs, give some indication of the See also:action that in the high fractured mountains of the Karst produces a depressing landscape which has some of the features of the " See also:bad lands " of See also:America, though due to a different cause.

End of Article: KARST

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