CEK
karst study center E. Gilli
10/2001
Studies and researches in
fundamental and applied karstology
SUMMARY
The Alpes Maritimes (South eastern
France)
Karst is a
part of Slovenia with many caves. Its peculiar landscape was studied by austrian
geographers during the XIXth century.
It results of the action of water on limestone. Becoming acid with the presence
of carbonic acid the water disolves the limestone and creates and special
landscape with many depressions the
sink holes. The water infiltrates into the limestone and dig caves and shafts..
A
karst is a limestone area wher this kind of landscape is presenet. The french
word is causse.
Karstic
landscapes form 10% of the surface rocks of Earth.
Karstologie
is the study of karstic lanscapes
Other sciences are concerned
- geomorphologie, study of
landscapes
- hydrogeology, study of
underground water
- speleology study of caves
Among
the applications, the studies concerning the protection of the aquifers and the
management of water ressources are growing up.
During
the last decade several researches have proved the great interest of karstology
for the study of palaeoenvironments.
Karstic lands, caves and speleothems (stalactites and stalagmites) keep
for hundreds of thousands years informations on the events that created them.
Karst is a natural recorder of natural phenomena. A good application is
prehistory , but theses
CEK is a non profit association with
geologists, geographers and cavers. It was created in 1976 to organise
speleological investigations abroad. Its present aim is to promote any
kind of studies on karst. sspéléologiques à l'étranger, son objet actuel est de
réaliser et promouvoir tous types d'études relatives au karst
Our
address : 8, place Garibaldi - 06000 Nice FRANCE
phone: 33 - 493 55 90 07
Eric Gilli , Paul Gilli, Thomas Gaschat, Pierre Delange, Pierre Larré, Remy Schejbal, Françoise Scoffier
Several
countries were explored by the CEK members since 1976
as
shown on the following map
Study
of underground large karstic voids : Some underground large karstic chamber are more than 100 m wide. We
have studied the largest rooms in France (salle la Verna (diameter : 230 m,
hight : 150 m) and Sarawak chamber in Bornéo (600 x 415 m and 100 m high).
Underground dams : by blocking a karstic spring it is possible to create an
underground reserve of water. An experience lead in Coaraze (Alpes Maritimes,
France) as allowed to rise the water
pressure up to 0,8 bar.
Study
of submarine and littoral springs : important karstic spring are present under the sea. They could be
used for water supply in Mediterranean countries.
We
have studied with a financial support of
DIREN Paca and Agence de l'eau RMC, most of the springs of south eastern
France
Study
of palaeoearthquakes and neotectonics : caves are affected by recent movements of
faults and keep traces of old earthquakes. Researches in France, Turkey,
Slovenia, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Germany, Belgium, USA have been conducted to .
Detection and treatment of caves under buildings
Tourism
Eric Gilli : the author
CDS 06 : speleological activities in the Alpes
Maritimes (France)
SIS - Section INRIA de spéléo : an excellent portal towards
speleology
Karstologie : another portal to karstology
Réseau Eau : Data base of French Water agency
Bulletin bibliographique de
spéléologie :
Thousands of references on karst and caving.
Dernière
modification : octobre 2003
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