ABSTRACT
About one sixth of the surface of Austria is comprised of karstified rocks (see map in Europe, Alpine entry), and some 14000 caves had been surveyed as of 2001. More than 90% of these caves occur within the Northern Calcareous Alps, but there are also notable areas of karst and caves in the Central Alps (e.g. see entry on Spannagel Cave) and in the Southern Calcareous Alps. The great economic significance of these karst terrains is illustrated by the fact that many major cities in Austria are supplied by high-quality karstderived drinking water. The geological history and evolution of large cave systems in the Eastern Alps of Austria has traditionally been attributed to successive phases of uplift since the Tertiary, subsequently modified by the pervasive Pleistocene glaciations. Recently, Frisch et al. (2001) elaborated this model further by combining structural and thermochronological data. According to their model, major cave formation commenced during the Late Miocene under climatic conditions significantly different from the present, and continued throughout the Pliocene and the Quaternary.
