ABSTRACT
Relict landforms are abundant in karst areas and provide clues to the geomorphic history and hydrologic evolution of the surrounding region. Environmental interpretation of the fill material in paleokarst is necessary to establish the exact conditions that led to burial of the karst features. Karst features on exposed bedrock are formed mainly by surface water from rainfall and snow melt. The most distinctive characteristic of surficial karst features is a strong tendency for the bedrock edges, divides between rills and breaks in slope to be very sharp and abrupt. The clearest examples of karst features formed within alternating vadose and phreatic conditions occur in caves where great variations in the recharge rate cause rapid and high-amplitude fluctuations in the water table. The extensive paleokarst at the top of the Mississippian limestones of west-central North America is an example in which marine sedimentary rocks of Pennsylvanian age fill solutional voids in the limestone.
