Karst processes
Phenomena
Limestone pavement (Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales, UK) - Flat surface made up of series of clints (flat horizontal slabs of limestone) and grikes (vertical cracks between the slabs). Limestone pavements were exposed during an ice age by the scouring action of an ice sheet.
Sinkhole pond (Hauts plateaux du Vercors, France) - Lake located in a depression or hole in the bedrock formed by chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks.
Grikes (La Tournette, Haute-Savoie, France) - Fissures in rocks originate from dissolving of carbonates by rainfall.
Sinkhole (Haute plateaux du Vercors, France) - Sinkholes have its origin in dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes. The bottom of the conical shaped sinkhole could collapse and connect the surface with an underground cave system.
Marble caves (Capillas de Marmol, lago Carrera, Chile) - The caves have formed in a pure marble by dissolution in lake water. The blocks of marble were exposed by glacier erosion during the Plesitocene and consequently exposed to chemical weathering. The parts of the blocks near the water surface are dissolved faster than other parts.
Cave (Grotte de Choranche, Vercors, France) - Caves formed in soluble rock such as limestone, chalk, dolomite, marble, salt, or gypsum counts among the most frequently occurring caves. Especially limestone caves are the largest and most abundant caves with a rich decoration of different types of speleothems.
Stalagmite (Grotte de la Madeleine, Ardeche, France) - Speleothems is a general name for cave deposits formed via carbonate dissolution reactions. Stalagmite is an upward-growing form precipitated from minerals included in water dripping onto the cave floor.
Stalactite (Grotte de Choranche, Vercors, France) - Stalactite is a spleleothem hanging from the cave ceiling that is produced by minerals included in water dripping through the cave ceiling.
Stalagnat - column, pillar (Grotte de Choranche, Vercors, France) - Stalagnat occurs when a stalagmite and stalactite merge into one column.
Drapery (Grotte de la Madeleine, Ardeche, France) - Thin sheet of waved limestone draperies reflect a path of pioneer flow routes running on cave ceiling.
Straws (Grotte de Choranche, Vercors, France) - Straw is a tubular stalactite formed by a hollow mineral cylindrical tube.
Flowstone (Grotte de Choranche, Vercors, France) - It is the most common speleothem. Flowstones are formed by precipitation of minerals from flowing film of water on the cave wall or bottom.
Spring (Lathkill Dale, Peak District, UK) - Rivers in karst landscape often disappear in an underground cave system and then it emerge as a cave spring in the distance of hundreds of meters or kilometres.
Karstification (Crimea) - Once opened crack/fracture/crevice in the limestone rock was filled with material with various grain size. After some time this material was cemented with dissoluted calcium carbonate.