KARST AND TRAINS: HOW RAILWAYS INFLUENCED THE DEVELOPMENT OF KARST GEOMORPHOLOGY

The term “karst” appeared in papers and descriptions of caves and karst poljes long before the middle 1880’s, but three events really brought the Kras plateau into the international literature. The region of the “classical karst” or the “karst of Trieste” was a wild and little known area until the completion of the Austrian Southern Railway line in 1857 linked the Habsburg Empire’s capital of Vienna with its port of Trieste on the Adriatic coast. The study of geomorphology coincided largely with the development of relief mapping and the term was first used in 1858. At about the same time Vienna became a center for geomorphology research and geologists had for the first time easy access to the Kras plateau as well as fresh “road cuts” to expose the extensive sequence of carbonate rocks and in some cases bisect dolines, caves, and other karst features. Jovan Cvijic, a student of Albrect Penck of the Vienna School of Physical Geography published “Das Karstphanomen” in 1893 and firmly established the term “karst” in the geological literature.