Karst forms in the High Karst

The Julian Alps have a limestone surface and underground. The surface has been glacially transformed by the action of glaciers. The Julian Alps are characterised by a mountainous climate with plenty of precipitation, especially snow. Rainwater in the form of rain, snow and ice dissolves limestone in the mountains under different conditions.

The High Karst is characterised by vertical caves - potholes that can be very deep. On the surface, the dissolution of the limestone bedrock results in the formation of sinkholes, kettles, grooves, gullies, scrapes, gullies and slats.

• The largest are the kontas. These are the larger sinkholes where the snow stays the longest. 
• The kettles are smaller than the cones, are usually deeper and have steep or vertical walls.
• Chutes are formed on smooth, usually exposed limestones. Rainwater collects from the droplets into a common flow, creating narrow and shallow gutter-like fissures on the surface.
• The rills are narrower and deeper than the gullies and are usually formed along fractures in the rock.
• Scarps are pan-like depressions in limestone rock. They have a characteristic flat bottom and hollowed out edges. They are formed where water cannot drain freely and therefore accumulates and begins to dissolve the rock through corrosion.
• The beds are smooth slabs of rock.

On such terrains, karst shapes are even more visible and pronounced. In the dry periods of the year, high mountain karst, although shaped by water, is essentially a desert without a drop of water, as it quickly seeps into the underground labyrinth through systems of cracks.

DO YOU KNOW?

1. The lowest temperature in Slovenia was measured in a karst canyon in Komna, at -49.1°C.
2. The deepest chasm in Slovenia is the Čehi 2 chasm on the Rombonské Podi in Kanin. It is 1370 m deep.