Karst Topography

Somebody once said that all science was either physics or stamp collecting. I forget who that was. And I have more sympathy for chemists, but he had a point. Geologists are among the stamp collectors. They make up names for things and assign them to... well, some artificial construct which they also make up. To some extent it does help to channel our thinking like that. It gives us a base, a point of departure; an unnaturally simple description of a natural world which is actually quite beyond description. And I love it! I'm fascinated by it!

I tell you that to set up this story. Once there was this Serb, I forget his name too (starts with C - Ciric or something), who described the topography of the Kras region of what is now Slovenia as being a consequence of it's hydrology.



Skraplje: Kras mountains of Slovenia

It happens, as he described, that water (being slightly acidic) permeates and flows through the (basic) limestone massifs that make up those mountains dissolving the limestone and leaving behind a series of caves, sink-holes, and such. He had the foresight to write it up in German, "Das Karst Phenomena". Otherwise nobody would have ever heard of it. Geologists adopted the German. Hence Karst, not Kras.

The coastal mountain range, "Los Picos de Europa", that I've talked about and separates the northern camino route from the Camino Frances, and figures so importantly in the history of Spain, and the soils and agriculture of the entire Spanish meseta; is a limestone massif too. And water permeates it; a magical land. There are placesalong the "Routa de Cares", a pass in the mountain, where water pours forth from the rocks as though they were enchanted.
W


Cares: Picos de Europa

There are other Karst areas in the world.



Notably, southern China



Phang Nga Bay in Thailand. We went kayaking there. This is James Bond Island. Named for the movie.

And outside Le Baux in southern France which gives us our word bauxite - another geological word without a precise definition. (A good geologist will no doubt fudge that imprecision.) I was there once in another geological time. No picture.

But the Greenbrier River Valley... NOT KARST!!! - even though you will find it listed in Wikipedia! Sorry, just because there are sink-holes doesn't make it Karst. No limestone massif. No enchantment. That's the difference. I had an argument with a geologist friend about this some time ago; wrong stamp, wrong stamp placeholder. A mistake that could only be made by a geologist who reads too much and doesn't get out quite enough.

Anyway, we went to a cave near Picos de Europa called El Soplao (cuevas). ENCHANTED!

Want a mineralogical explanation for the way calcite crystalizes? I didn't think so. So then words fail it. Beyond description! But, what a beautiful world we live in! They wouldn't let me take pictures. So, google it.


f/d - all illustrations from internet and not mine