The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey IX: Anhydrite and limestone karst in the Tripolitanian pre-desert

1 January 1985

journal article
research article
Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Libyan Studies

Vol. 16, 1-13
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0263718900007251

Abstract

Active karst landforms (poljes, dolines, sinkholes, caves and rillenkarren) and hydration and weathering phenomena on anhydrite and limestone are described from the Tripolitanian pre-desert. Rainfall in the study area is considerably less than the 250–300 mm a−1 previously suggested as the minimum precipitation threshold for the development of karst landforms. These findings suggest that the presence of karst land-forms in an arid region cannot necessarily be taken as evidence for higher precipitation levels in the past.

Keywords

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:

Karst Hydrology and Physical Speleology
Published by Springer Nature ,1980
A simulation study of the development of rillenkarren
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 1980
Karst
The Geographical Journal, 1972