Projects / Programmes
Development and function of caves in different speleological settings
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.12.01 |
Humanities |
Geography |
Physical geography |
karst, cave, speleogenesis, epikarst, biology, karst modeling
Researchers (11)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The project is aimed to establish whether there are typical and recognizable speleological environments with similar set of caves, features, phenomena and processes and with similar ecological properties. To define such basic, homogeneous speleological morphostructural units in karst would allow to study and compare different karst types and would introduce a new methodological approach. We shall study sedimentation geological structures and their impact on formation of karst caves and channels in a vadose epikarstic zone. We shall measure recent tectonic movements in caves and we shall try to evaluate the importance of neotectonics in morphology of collapse cave features. We shall study microfeatures on cave walls as an indication of recent speleogenetical processes and we shall use them to define morphostructural cave features. We shall research caves and shafts of Alpine and High Dinaric karst giving an emphasis to shape, genesis and hydrological function of deep vadose shafts and properties of thick epikarstic zone.We shall study the morphology of influent caves and compare them with superficial features of contact karst. We shall try to find out in which way different allogenic waters influence upon formation of cave systems. By studying water percolation we shall try to describe the properties of epikarstic zone, this is a part of karst which is intersected by numerous cracks and fissures permanently or periodically filled with water. Epikarst is a transition zone for pollutants to reach deeper underground, this is a storage of water and a habitat rich in fauna. Numerical values obtained by measuring the velocity of drainage, water tracing tests and measurements of chemical properties will be used to prepare numerical and conceptual models of water flow and formation of the upper, epikarstic zone of karst.
