Case Studies from the Dinaric Karst of Slovenia

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Fig. 42: Cerkniško polje with meandering river Stržen and ponoring places Rešeto and Vodonos (photo: A. Mihevc).of the polje; there are some Jurassic dolomitesin the area. On W and NW the Cretaceouslimestone are presented.During the last centuries, a lot of plansfor the hydro melioration of polje have beenmade, but not any of them were realized. In1965 it was proposed to make Cerknica poljea permanent lake; in the years 1968 and 1969,entrances to the caves Velika and Mala Karlovicawere closed by concrete walls and 30 mlong tunnel was made to connect Karlovicawith the surface, but small effect of retentionin dry period and less moistened years wereassessed.The flattened bottom of Cerkniško poljeis regularly flooded for several months in autumnwinter and springtime; at floods it altersto spacious karst lake. Lower waters are sinkingmostly in marginal swallow holes and innumerous ground swallow holes and estavellas,which are disposed in central polje’s bottom.Principal ponor caves and swallow holesare disposed at the polje’s northwest border.Outflow from the polje was not orientedto one channel, rather to a mesh of channels,which about 200 m from the edge of poljecombine into a couple of larger galleries. Theyare generally low, because the bottom is filledwith alluvia. Alluvium at altitude of 550 m isdistinctive in all ponor caves; its thickness ispossibly the same as a thickness of alluvia inJamski zaliv.Karst of Dolenjska and KolpaThe karst of Dolenjska (Lower Carniola)occupies an area between the Ljubljanskobarje (Ljubljana moor), the eastern edge ofthe Bloška planota (Bloke plateau), the riverKupa/Kolpa, the mountains Gorjanci, thesettlement Krško and the southern of theDolenjsko podolje (Dolenjska lowland). It isalso described as the covered lowland karst55
of Dolenjska (Gams, 1974; Kranjc, 1990), andoccupies the northeastern part of the Dinarickarst region.Tectonically the area corresponds to theeastern part of the Hrušica thrust sheet, whichis the part of the northeastern External Dinarides(Placer, 1999). The rocks are Triassic dolomites,Jurassic carbonates (dolomites andlimestones) and Cretaceous shallow marinecarbonates (mainly limestones) overlain byPliocene-Quaternary deposits and soils up toa few meters thick in places (Pleničar et al.,1977). Dolomites are widespread especiallyalong the northern, northwestern and easternedges of Dolenjska.The highest part of the karst of Dolenjska(up to 1,289 m a.s.l.) is located in the west andis similar to the karst of Notranjska (i.e., highkarst plateaus, uvalas and karst poljes). Towardthe east, the elevation generally decreases tothe flood plain of the river Krka and the levelledsurface of Bela Krajina (both at ~170 ma.s.l.). Bela Krajina is the northern part of theplateau between rivers Kupa/Kolpa and Unaseparated by the canyon of the river Kolpa. Betweenthe Krka flood plain and Bela Krajina arethe mountains Gorjanci (1,178 m a.s.l.). Whilethe western part of Dolenjska shows featuresand hydrogeological conditions characteristicof deep karst, the eastern part is more fluviokarsticdue to low spatial differences in elevationand, in some areas, dolomites. Water isclose to the surface, and the surface is coveredwith a thick layer of red karst soil due to thelow elevation and consequently low erosion.The red soils above dolomites are thicker andmore cohesive than those above limestones(Gams & Vrišer 1998). Wide linear and conicaldepressions and rounded hills predominate inthe relief although some karst poljes are alsodeveloped in this area (e.g. Radensko polje,Globodol). The biggest morphological featureis the Dolenjsko podolje – a 48 km-long valleylikefeature running in a northwest-southeast-Fig. 43: Middle course of the river Kupa/Kolpa where it crosses levelled surface along Rajhenav tectonic block. Due tosubsidence of this block, canyon bottom is relatively wide (photo: M. Prelovšek).56
Page 2 and 3:
Andrej Mihevc, Mitja Prelovšek, Na
Page 4 and 5: ContentsGeographical Position and G
Page 7 and 8: Fig. 2: Coastal part of Dinaric kar
Page 9 and 10: ogy started. In 1531 a lawyer from
Page 11 and 12: include numerous data and general o
Page 13 and 14: GeologyNadja Zupan HajnaThe Dinaric
Page 15 and 16: ceous. The final disintegration of
Page 17 and 18: Fig. 11: Locations of Jelar Breccia
Page 19 and 20: ClimateMitja PrelovšekThe Dinaric
Page 21 and 22: 311 mm/a; Zaninović 2008) and incr
Page 23 and 24: 24Fig. 16: Spatial distribution of
Page 25 and 26: ocks (such as Eocene flysch, Lower
Page 27 and 28: absent. Downstreamparts of the cany
Page 29 and 30: GeomorphologyAndrej MihevcIn folk l
Page 31 and 32: long. They are smoother especially
Page 33 and 34: is now depositing. Best known are t
Page 35 and 36: Structural poljes are dominated by
Page 37 and 38: Fig. 28: Typical dolines of Dinaric
Page 39 and 40: the disintegrated collapsed rock at
Page 41 and 42: on Northern Velebit, where three ca
Page 43 and 44: Land UseNadja Zupan Hajna, Andrej M
Page 45 and 46: for ‘bare limestone desert’ -th
Page 47 and 48: Fig. 38: Grančarevo dam in the upp
Page 49 and 50: KrasThe Kras is a distinct plateau,
Page 51 and 52: in this part of the Kras (Mihevc 20
Page 53: dolomite barrier along the Idrija w
Page 57 and 58: Fig. 44: Blind valleys of Matarsko
Page 59 and 60: ly several dozen meters deep. Shaft
Page 61 and 62: smaller than the higher ones. The r
Page 63 and 64: tion in the Divaški kras (Mihevc 1
Page 65 and 66: Use of Karst and its ProtectionThe
Page 67 and 68: Gams, I., Vrišer, I. (Eds.), 1998:
Page 69 and 70: lems.- Dela 38, Raziskovalni center
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Case Studies from the Dinaric Karst of Slovenia

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