karstn.
/kɑːst/, U.S. /kɑrst/ 1. With the. The name of a high barren limestone region south of Ljubljana in Slovenia that has given its name to a kind of topography typified there (see sense 2); used attributively in Geomorphology (now usually with small k) to designate similar regions and scenery, features, and phenomena associated with them, etc.; karst land n. (also karstland) karstic land; a karstic region.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > [noun] > types of terrain
patchwork1865
Mound Region1873
boulder-flat1884
karrenfeld1885
boulder-belt1894
karst land1894
karst1902
felsenmeer1905
stone-field1906
staircasing1911
fundament1928
strewn field1937
thermokarst1943
patterned ground1950
pseudokarst1954
tower karst1954
tektite field1960
stone pavement1969
the world > the earth > land > landscape > [adjective] > types of terrain
stone-faced1632
karst1894
polygonal1924
karstic1925
sorted1950
pseudokarstic1960
1894 Geogr. Jrnl. 3 321 Under the general designation Karst-phenomena, physical geographers in Germany include a variety of land-surface features, all characteristic of limestone regions, which, when the features in question are present, are known as ‘Karst-regions’.
1894 Geogr. Jrnl. 3 509 A monotonous limestone plateau almost without water and vegetation, and occasionally exhibiting the very worst Karst features.
1895 Geogr. Jrnl. Oct. 382 The Karst-forms of the glaciers of the Austrian Alps.
1898 J. Geikie Earth Sculpture xiii. 217 Not less characteristic features of the karst-lands are the so-called blind-valleys and dry-valleys. Through the former a river flows to disappear into a tunnel at the closed or blind end.
1900 Geogr. Jrnl. Feb. 174 The lake itself is of the nature of a ‘Karst’ lake.
1903 Westm. Gaz. 10 Feb. 3/1 The latter [sc. Herzegovina], although fertile in parts and well cultivated, is a Karst country, warm and southern.
1908 H. B. C. Sollas & W. J. Sollas tr. E. Suess Face of Earth III. vi. 231 In the Shan states of Burma, several of the coulisses which approach from the north and north-east disappear beneath a karst-like plateau of Palaeozoic limestone.
1909 T. C. Chamberlin & R. D. Salisbury Geol.: Shorter Course xxiii. 689 The limestone and dolomite are much more resistant than the associated shales, and as a result, erosion has developed a distinctive topography (Karst topography) at several points in the southern Alps.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XV. 683/2 As this structure always, wherever found, gives rise to similar features, a landscape of this character is called a Karst landscape.
1914 G. A. J. Cole Growth of Europe xiii. 236 The term karstland is applied to this scenic type.
1921 Geogr. Rev. 11 594 In a region where karst topography is fully developed the water circulates almost entirely underground.
1921 Geogr. Rev. 11 631 To Penck and others we owe something for their development of the idea of the karst cycle.
1922 Geol. Mag. 59 394 Karst phenomena are not infrequent in the Alpine limestone districts.
1924 Glasgow Herald 25 Aug. 4 Karakul sheep were also introduced..in the Austrian ‘karst land’, in the mountains between Croatia and the Adriatic.
1931 J. B. Scrivenor Geol. Malaya 54 The wonderful karst scenery of towering limestone hills with perpendicular and overhanging cliffs.
1932 W. H. Emmons et al. Geol. v. 80 In the United States similar topography is developed in limestone areas in central Tennessee and Kentucky and is referred to as Karst topography.
1939 E. B. Bailey & J. Weir Introd. Geol. xxxi. 183 Karst land is rare in Scotland.
1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. xiii. 349 Whether there exists a distinct cycle of land-form evolution in limestone terrains which we may designate as a karst cycle or whether what has been so designated is better considered as the karst phase of a fluvial cycle is a disputed question.
1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. 107 Along the southwestern shore of the lakes where the karst topography is best developed, there are not only many islands but also very deep holes.
1958 Geogr. Jrnl. 129 184 (heading) The karstlands of Jamaica.
1963 ‘M. Albrand’ Call from Austria xvii. 145 He might have fallen into one of those karst holes you can't spot until it's too late.
1963 D. W. Humphries & E. E. Humphries tr. H. Termier & G. Termier Erosion & Sedimentation xiv. 316 A karst-eroded surface.
1971 Guardian 5 June 9/2 This is Italy's deep south, karst country, hot and dry, split with canyons.
2. (With small k.) A kind of topography of which the Slovenian Karst is typical, found in areas of readily dissolved rock (usually limestone) and predominantly underground drainage and marked by numerous abrupt ridges, fissures, sink-holes, and caverns; a region dominated by this kind of topography.In quot. 1902 the Karst in Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia) is referred to.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > [noun] > types of terrain
patchwork1865
Mound Region1873
boulder-flat1884
karrenfeld1885
boulder-belt1894
karst land1894
karst1902
felsenmeer1905
stone-field1906
staircasing1911
fundament1928
strewn field1937
thermokarst1943
patterned ground1950
pseudokarst1954
tower karst1954
tektite field1960
stone pavement1969
1902 Geogr. Jrnl. 20 429 The uvala is a large, broad sinking in the karst with uneven floor.
1916 H. F. Cleland Geol. iii. 72 Karst is used as a descriptive term for any limestone region which has been etched and eroded by water into a rough surface.
1922 Geol. Mag. 59 394 The south of France where the karst attains its greatest development in Western Europe.
1937 S. W. Wooldridge & R. S. Morgan Physical Basis Geogr. xix. 289 The surface of a well-developed karst has lost all semblance of normal water-modelled forms. It is a stone desert, a chaos of pits, elongated hollows, and ridges.
1958 Geogr. Jrnl. 129 192 Considerable areas of degraded karst occur in northern and central Jamaica.
1963 D. W. Humphries & E. E. Humphries tr. H. Termier & G. Termier Erosion & Sedimentation vi. 148 Bauxites occur very frequently on karsts.
1966 J. C. Pugh in G. H. Dury Ess. Geomorphol. 135 Some workers prefer to regard cockpit country and tower karst as typical of karst in general, holding that in the past too much emphasis has been placed on solution and on associated collapse of passages, and too little on surface features of solution which are not restricted to tropical regions.
1968 R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 682/2 The terrace surface is a deeply etched karst (‘karrenfeld’), with pinnacles 15 feet high, alternating with deep crevices, partly filled with red soil.
1972 J. Roglić in Herak & Stringfield Karst i. 6 Following Cvijić, he considered the doline a basic feature (‘Leitform’) of karst.
Derivatives
ˈkarstic adj. of or characteristic of karst; that is (a) karst.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > [adjective] > types of terrain
stone-faced1632
karst1894
polygonal1924
karstic1925
sorted1950
pseudokarstic1960
1925 Geogr. Rev. 15 72 The poljes have been formed by karstic and fluvial erosion.
1925 Geogr. Rev. 15 140 They occur in volcanic and karstic terrains.
1933 Geogr. Jrnl. 81 275 Karstic drainage occurs in limestone, dolomite, gypsum.
1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. 19 In common with the other large lakes of the region [sc. the Balkans], both show some karstic features.
1963 D. W. Humphries & E. E. Humphries tr. H. Termier & G. Termier Erosion & Sedimentation vi. 148 The karstic form of the limestone has thus acted as a trap for the transported sediment.
1970 R. J. Small Study of Landforms iv. 152 Enclosed depressions in karstic areas are usually attributed either to (i) slow downward development by solution processes..or to (ii) collapse of rock above an underground passage or cavern.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1894