Nicole (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trickykitty) wrote2016-09-17 08:57 am
trickykitty) wrote2016-09-17 08:57 am
Entry tags:
The Amazing Karst
What I find so absolutely fascinating about karst is that it shows you where the ground level for the area used to be.
In every single one of those images linked above, especially ones in which towns now exist at the base of the karst, imagine the ground level once used to be at the top of all those formations. You could have walked straight across what would now be considered high in the sky, assuming of course that the land was above sea level.
That's the other fascinating thing. Most of the limestone which comprises karst was formed from marine life remains and the settling of minerals as seabed. There may not have been any land visible, but if you were in a boat, you would have been floating at least just above the tops of all those formations.
So much land and water moved by erosion over millions of years. It reminds me of the time lapse of the land seen in the remake of The Time Machine, watching canyons form out of the land where once tiny creeks were and how the incoming glacier appears as an actual wave of water when sped up.
In every single one of those images linked above, especially ones in which towns now exist at the base of the karst, imagine the ground level once used to be at the top of all those formations. You could have walked straight across what would now be considered high in the sky, assuming of course that the land was above sea level.
That's the other fascinating thing. Most of the limestone which comprises karst was formed from marine life remains and the settling of minerals as seabed. There may not have been any land visible, but if you were in a boat, you would have been floating at least just above the tops of all those formations.
So much land and water moved by erosion over millions of years. It reminds me of the time lapse of the land seen in the remake of The Time Machine, watching canyons form out of the land where once tiny creeks were and how the incoming glacier appears as an actual wave of water when sped up.