Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Processes
- 2 Regional seismic shaking hazards in mountains
- 3 Volcanic hazards and risks: a geomorphological perspective
- 4 Mountain hazards
- 5 Review and future challenges in snow avalanche risk analysis
- 6 Landslide hazards
- 7 Catastrophic landslides and sedimentary budgets
- 8 Landslides and climatic change
- 9 The hazardousness of high-magnitude floods
- 10 Flood hazards: the context of fluvial geomorphology
- 11 Geomorphology and coastal hazards
- 12 Weathering hazards
- 13 Hazards associated with karst
- 14 Soil erosion
- 15 Desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions
- 16 Dune migration and encroachment
- Part II Processes and applications of geomorphology to risk assessment and management
- Index
- References
13 - Hazards associated with karst
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Processes
- 2 Regional seismic shaking hazards in mountains
- 3 Volcanic hazards and risks: a geomorphological perspective
- 4 Mountain hazards
- 5 Review and future challenges in snow avalanche risk analysis
- 6 Landslide hazards
- 7 Catastrophic landslides and sedimentary budgets
- 8 Landslides and climatic change
- 9 The hazardousness of high-magnitude floods
- 10 Flood hazards: the context of fluvial geomorphology
- 11 Geomorphology and coastal hazards
- 12 Weathering hazards
- 13 Hazards associated with karst
- 14 Soil erosion
- 15 Desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid regions
- 16 Dune migration and encroachment
- Part II Processes and applications of geomorphology to risk assessment and management
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction: why are hazards associated with karst important?
Karst refers to terrains in which the geomorphology and hydrology, both at the surface and in the subsurface, are largely governed by dissolution of carbonate and/or evaporite rocks. Some distinctive characteristics of karst environments include: (1) the presence of enclosed depressions (dolines or sinkholes and poljes), swallow holes and large springs; (2) the prevalence of underground drainage through channels resulting from dissolutional enlargement of discontinuity planes. Groundwater flow in these interconnected conduits circulates much faster than in aquifers controlled by granular or fracture permeability (Ford and Williams, 2007). Three main types of karst settings can be differentiated: bare karst, covered or mantled karst and interstratal karst, depending on whether the soluble rocks are exposed at the surface, covered by unconsolidated deposits or overlain by non-karst rocks (caprocks), respectively.
Karst developed in evaporite rocks has distinctive features primarily due to the higher solubility and lower mechanical strength of the evaporites (Gutiérrez et al., 2008a). The equilibrium solubilities of gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) and halite (NaCl) in distilled water are 2.4 and 360 g/l, respectively. By comparison, the solubilities of calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (MgCa[CO3]2) minerals in regular meteoric waters are commonly lower than 0.1 g/l. The solubilities of these carbonate minerals are largely dependent on the pH of the water, which is generally controlled by the carbon dioxide partial pressure.
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- Geomorphological Hazards and Disaster Prevention , pp. 161 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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