Evolution of Karst. From prekarst to cessation

The book comprises proceedings of the symposium “Evolution of Karst: From Prekarst to Cessation”, organised by the Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU in September 2002 in Postojna. The aim of the book is to answer questions like: When does karst start and when does it end ? Which processes and events determine the evolution of karst? How do caves develop? How is subsurface hydrology and distribution of hypogean fauna connected to the state of karst evolution? How do we date processes in karst? The first half of the book contains invited papers where authors give answers to the questions quoted above, each author from the perspective of his own research. These chapters cover porosity development in carbonates during diagenesis (V. P. Wright), effect of structure and lithology on karst development (D. C. Ford), speleogenesis in carbonates and evaporites (A. N. Palmer, A. Klimchouk), paleokarst (R. A. L. Osborne), models of early evolutions of karst aquifers (W. Dreybrodt & F. Gabrovšek), karstification and groundwater flow (L. Kiraly), dating of karst processes (P. Bosak) and evolution of karst versus the distribution and diversity of hypogean fauna (B. Sket). The second half of the book comprises papers covering current research on karst geomorphology, speleology and speleogenesis, karst hydrology, paleokarst, karstification in various settings, dating of events in karst and use geophysical methods in karst systems.