Case Studies from the Dinaric Karst of Slovenia

of his time, a Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1678),has published his monumental work MundusSubterraneus (1665 the first edition). The bigkarst springs are explained by enormous undergroundreservoirs hydrophillatia and asthe proof of his theory the Cerkniško jezero isused (Fig. 4). Ten years later Valvasor (1689)travelled many times to Cerknica, to explore itby himself (neither Wernher nor Kircher evervisited it). He did not agree with Kircher andmade his own explanation which earned himthe London’s Royal Society membership.The fame of the Dinaric karst phenomena,from Carniola specially, is in great deal due toValvasor’s descriptions; he was not interestedin the Cerkniško polje (Cerknica polje) only, butin other karst phenomena also: sinking rivers,karst springs and caves especially. In 1748 theemperor Franz I. Stephan sent the director ofhis Cabinet of rarities J. A. Nagel (1748) to Carniolato found out what are these unusual phenomena,and to bring some samples for his collection.After returning Nagel wrote a detailedreport; the most important is his explanationof the periodicity of Cerkniško jezero and theobservation of the age of speleothems. F.Steinberg (1758) published the whole book onthe Cerkniško jezero and T. Gruber (1781) wasthe first who published (probably the ideas ofhis brother Gabriel) the accurate explanationof the lake. He even advised a sort of meteorologicalstations to be able to calculate thequantities of in- and output of the water.For the coastal part of Dinaric karst thedescription and exploration even of karst phenomenaby the Abbot Alberto Fortis publishedin 1774 is especially important due to the politicalsituation on the Balkans. He was accompaniedby foreign scholars and even by an Englishbishop so his book was well known. Commentarieswere published about the book (Lovrich1776) but without discussing his views ofkarst phenomena. Just to mention that Fortissupports the collapse theory of foibas (shafts)formation. In the same time another scholartravelled through Dinaric karst too, B. Hacquet(1778). He was a doctor of medicine but by hisown opinion he was a chemist. Some of hisideas about geological development, aboutrocks and the solution of limestone (corrosion)were too early and although they were publishedand despite his relations with learnedsocieties and scholars all round the Europehis ideas were not recognised. Maybe he isthe first to largely use the expression DinaricAlps. In 1785 he has published “The physicalpoliticaltravel from Dinaric through Julian,Carnian, Rhätian and Noric Alps”, including thepanoramic view from the river Zrmanja to themountain Dinara (Hacquet 1785).The first phase of karst geomorphologyresearchDuring the 19 th century the boom of geologicalresearch touched the Dinaric karst too.Vienna was very important scientific centreand Dinaric karst, well developed and largekarst region in its vicinity, became the sourceof main ideas on karst. In 1830 already F. Hohenwartwrites in the preface of a guide book toPostojnska jama (Postojna cave) that the karstis not on the plateau of Karst only, but stretchesfrom the Friuli plain to the Greek Island ofCephalonia.In 1848 A. v. Morlot published the map andthe text about the geology of Istria includingdiscussion of morphological features, especiallydolines. The basic work on speleology of theCarniolian part of Dinaric karst was achievedby A. Schmidl (1854) exploration in the middleof the 19 th century (Fig. 5), helped by Vienna’sAcademy and the Southern Railway Company(the railroad Vienna – Trieste was opened in1857). Western scholars, it is true that few,were interested in the Turkish part of the Balkans,like A. Boué (1840) who published “LaTurquie d’Europe; observations sur la géographie,la géologie, l’histoire naturelle“. Later hewas interested in karst (Karst und Trichterplastikfrom 1861) and in Bosnia specially. Therewere some serious published reports whosetitles imply narrow application but in fact they11