Evolution and Age Relations of Karst Landscapes

Abstract

Any karst landscape is a work in progress. The observed evolution of the landscape is dictated by competing rate processes of surface denudation, stream downcutting, cave development, and tectonic uplift. Quantitative data on these processes, applied to two physiographic provinces of the Appalachian Mountains of eastern United States gives ages and time scales that are in agreement with previous geomorphic interpretation. The results are anchored, very loosely, by the few dates that have been established for cave sediments. Unfortunately, the measured rates vary over an order of magnitude as a result of local circumstances making regional interpretation a rough approximation at best.