A STONE SHAPED BY WATER

When it comes to the karst landscape, few sayings could be truer than the Latin proverb "A water drop carves the stone not by force, but by falling often." The karst landscape is alive and constantly changing due to the persistent power of water, which carves incredible shapes into the limestone.

Minor solution features of different sizes and shapes are known under a variety of names. The most common are kamenitzas (i.e. solution pans), a type of shallow depressions which can be elliptical, dish-like or irregular in shape. They are carved into the rock, usually have a flat bottom and often overhanging sides. They form as a result of prolonged exposure of limestone rock to atmospheric water and its corrosive action, especially on gently inclined surfaces and steeper slopes. Heel-print karren (i.e. trittkaren, step karren) is another interesting surface karst landform. The semi-circular form resembles the imprint of a heel. It comprises a foreground and a flat tread-like surface, which is surrounded by a curved backslope or riser. The foreground is the sloping section at the front of the tread. The treads and the risers occur in a series, which resembles steps.

Rillenkarren (i.e. solution flutes) can usually be found at the crest of a bare rock slope. These small, narrow and parallel furrows are etched into the bare limestone by rainwater hitting and flowing over the soluble rock. Their direction coincides with the line of the dip of the slope. Rinnenkarren (i.e. solution channels or runnels) show increased width and depth downslope. They can be up to 30 centimetres wide and several metres long. When they run parallel across steeper slopes, they are straight. Mäanderkarren (i.e. meandering channels) are a type of small channels which occur on gentler slopes and exhibit picturesque meandering forms.

Kluftkarren (i.e. grikes) are one of the principal karst landforms. They are the result of faster dissolution of limestone by channelised surface water flowing along fissures or other less resistant surfaces of the rock. Rundkarren (i.e. rounded runnels) are channels which develop beneath a soil cover. Kluftkarren can be several metres long. When kluftkarren break larger pieces of rock mass into many smaller pieces, debris karren occurs.