Karst in China

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

   PDF

2. The Physical Context of Karst in China

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 1-31

3. The Significance and History of Karst Studies in China

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 32-41

4. Karst Terminology and Karst Types in China

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 42-57

5. The Guilin Karst

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 58-92

6. The Cone Karsts of Guizhou

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 93-119

7. The Karsts of Yunnan

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 120-136

8. Karst in Other Parts of South China

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 137-150

9. The Karsts of North China

   • Marjorie M. Sweeting

   Pages 151-180

10. High Altitude Karst: The High Mountain Karst of West Sichuan

    • Marjorie M. Sweeting

    Pages 181-195

11. The Karst of Tibet and Other Parts of Chinese Central Asia

    • Marjorie M. Sweeting

    Pages 196-222

12. Karst Hydrogeology and Chemical Characteristics of the Karst Water

    • Marjorie M. Sweeting

    Pages 223-241

13. The Position of China in World Karst Studies

    • Marjorie M. Sweeting

    Pages 242-250

14. Back Matter

    Pages 251-267

    PDF

The writer has been occupied with karst problems for 50 years and first visited China in 1977 as leader of a Royal Society delegation of British geomorphologists - the first delegation from the UK to visit China since the inauguration of the new China and at the end of the Cultural Revolution (Sweeting 1978). It was clear from that visit that a study of the Chinese karst would help our understanding of the problems of karst development and that many of the geomorphological difficulties which at times had stultified karst thinking in Europe, might gain from the Chinese approach and ideas. First, for example, the Chinese karst is in its initial stages much more fluvial in origin than that of the Dinaric karst. Problems which worried European karst geomorphologists, such as dry val­ leys and the debates about karst base levels and the water table have not worried the Chinese so much. The development of the S Chinese karst has proceeded from an original fluvially eroded land­ scape which was later karstified. Secondly, the large area distri­ bution of limestones in China, and the spectacular areas of karst, compared with the often relatively small areas of karst in Europe, have focussed our attention upon the fundamental issues of karstification, rather than upon the endless discussions on the ori­ gin of the small and less significant landforms in the karst.

• China
• Europe
• Geomorphologie
• Geomorphology
• Hydrogeology
• Physical Geography
• depression
• engineering geology
• environment
• geography
• hydrology
• karst

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