Geomorphologic evolution and landforms

This type of landscape is closely connected with the geological conditions. The karst landforms can develop only in soluble rocks such as limestones, dolomite, marble or gypsum which can be dissolve by water.

There are many karst areas in the territory f the Czech Republic but they are small in extent and scarce in karst forms such as caves or sinkholes. Nevertheless they are two larger karst areas, one in the Bohemia - the Bohemian Karst, and second in Moravia - the Moravian Karst. They occur in Silurian, Devonian or Jurassic carbonates which weathered during the Mesozoic and Tertiary.

The Bohemian Karst extends 35 km to the SW from the southern part of Prague (it is a protected landscape area). Most of the karst forms here are inactive and largely sediment-filled The area is poor in karren fields, dolines and underground active streams, but rich in complex maze caves, locally with small but deep cave lakes. The area has extraordinary palaeogeological importance. The continuous Palaeozoic sedimentary rock complexes are abundant in Palaeozoic fossils and host several international stratotype and parastratotype sections, including the main Silurian/Devonian Global Boundary Stratotype Section in Suchomasty.

The Moravian Karst area is also under the protection. It is located near the town of Blansko north of Brno. It is more complex karst area than the Bohemian Karst. The Moravian Karst represents an area with the spectacularly developed karst morphology including half-blind and blind valleys, karst canyons, large sinkholes or deep abysses. The subsurface rivers formed the largest cave systems in the Czechia.

More about caves in the Czech Republic find here.

Fig. 1. Karst features.

Fig. 2. Karst areas in the Czech Republic. Red dot - caves open to the public, blue dot - karst cave, yellow dot - pseudokarst cave.

Fig. 3. Koněpruské caves in the Bohemian Karst (Autor: F. Rožánek, CC BY-SA 3.0).

Fig. 4. Velká Amerika deep pit quarry. More than 100 quarries can be found in the Bohemian Karst area. Limestone quarrying has hundreds of years lasting tradition.

Fig. 5. Macocha Abyss in the Moravian Karst is more than 138 m deep and it is the biggest gorge of its kind in the Czech Republic and even in the Central Europe (https://moravsky-kras.caves.cz/cz/macocha).