Quantitative karst morphology of the Hochschwab plateau, Eastern Alps, Austria.
- Autor(en)
- Kurt Decker, Lukas Plan
- Abstrakt
The Hochschwab is one of the large karst massifs in the Northern Calcareous Alps, situated in the Austrian province of Styria. As it provides freshwater for the city of Vienna karst morphological field mapping covering 59 km² of the plateau area was financed by the Viennese Waterworks. A total of 12,668 karst features ¿ 7151 dolines among them ¿ were mapped, attributed and integrated into a GIS. With these data statistical analyses of dolines, dry valleys and corridors were performed and compared to independently derived lithologic and tectonic data. Dolines were analysed with respect to the volume distribution function, spatial density, elevational distribution, host rock lithology, elongation direction and direction of linear arranged features. The direction and inclination of dry valleys and corridors were analysed. Glacial overprint proved to be a dominant factor for the occurrence and distribution of several karst features in this high alpine setting. Extremely high densities of rather small dolines are found in areas that suffered from major glacial erosion whereas big features are found on elevated palaeo-landscapes. A semi-quantitative classification of the occurrence of dolines, polygenetic poljes, glaciokarstic depressions, cave entrances, Karren and Tertiary clays with respect to the extent of glacial erosion is provided. The dependence of doline occurrence on lithology is not interpretable, as lithologies are not homogenously distributed with respect to glacial erosion, which seems to be the dominating factor. Fault control proved to be the dominant factor for identical direction-maxima of doline elongation and linear arrangement of dolines. Comparison with fault data shows that this ENE-direction corresponds to the second maximum of sinistral strike-slip faults. Corridors, which are also solutional features, show the same preferred orientation, whereas dry valleys are mainly bound to E-W-directed faults with thick cataclasites that seem to favour erosion.
- Organisation(en)
- Institut für Geologie
- Journal
- Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Supplementbaende
- Band
- 147
- Seiten
- 29-54
- Anzahl der Seiten
- 26
- ISSN
- 1864-1687
- Publikationsdatum
- 2006
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 1051 Geologie, Mineralogie
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/a3456c6f-c71a-405b-a51f-70a1fdde1948