TUGAS GEOMORFOLOGI UMUM

“SINKHOLES AND SUBSIDENCE”

Dosen pengampu: Dr. Eko Budiyanto, S.Pd., M.Si.

Disusun Oleh:
1. Sabillah Umi Damayanti (23040274006)
2. Farah Isania Pristyaningrum (23040274016)
3. Chika Nurvita Putri (23040274137)
4. Aisyah Yuli Andini (23040274143)

JURUSAN PENDIDIKAN GEOGRAFI

FAKULTAS ILMU SOSIAL DAN HUKUM
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI SURABAYA
TAHUN 2023
 BAB 1

ROCKS, DISSOLUTION AND KARST

1.1 LIMESTONE LITHOLOGIES

Carbonate rocks are defined as those containing more than 50% by weight of carbonate
minerals, although the proportion commonly exceeds 90%. The mechanical properties of old,
well-lithified limestones cover a range ofunconfined compressive strengths (UCS) of 30-100
MPa for the intact rock(Waltham and Fookes, 2003). Most caves, sinkholes and karst form in
thestronger rocks with UCS 60 MPa, unit weight 2.6kN / (m^3) and primary porosity < 2%.
Marbles are metamorphosed limestones, generally strong and also prone to erosion into
cavernous karst.Limestones are polygenetic. Allochthonous or transported limestone may
have a fabric similar to that of sandstone and may display current bedding structures.

Most limestones were formed as shallow-water marine deposits in environments that include
tidal and supratidal flats, shelf and bank areas, marginal reefs and back- reef lagoons. The
mechanical behaviour of all carbonate sediments is influenced by grain size and those post-
depositional changes that bring about induration, and thereby increase density and strength.
Induration of limestones commonly starts during the early stages of deposition, by
cementation that occurs where individual grains are in contact. Eventually, high overburden
pressures, creep and recrystallization produce crystalline limestone with very low porosity.

1.2 LIMESTONE AND DISSOLUTION

The rate of dissolution of a rock generally depends on the solubility and specific solution rate
constant of the constituent mineral, the degree of saturation of the solvent, the area presented
to the solvent and the motion of the solvent (which may keep it undersaturated). The reaction
may be simplified to the well-known equation: CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O = Ca²+2HCO

Dissolutional aggressiveness of water to calcium carbonate relates to the content of dissolved

carbon dioxide, which is a direct function of the partial pressures of the gas in its equilibrium
atmosphere; hence the importance of soil-derived waters. Limestone karst is better developed
in humid temperate and tropical regions, due to both the greater availability of carbon dioxide
in the soil and also the higher amounts of rainfall. Continued dissolution at depth within a
karst is due to the rapid transmission of unsaturated waters along open conduits. It is
significant that dissolution of limestone is a very slow process. Dissolution may however be
accelerated by man-made changes in the ground- water conditions, or by changes in the
character of the surface water that drains onto limestone.
 1.2.1 Cavernous ground
The long-term effect of dissolution in strong limestones (and dolomites) is to increase
cavernous porosity by the expansion of integrated systems of cave conduits. Though open
voids typically constitute no more than a few percent of karstic rock masses, they can have a
much greater impact on surface ground conditions where a thick soil mantles the cavernous
bedrock. A tunnel excavated through a kilometre of mature karst typically meets only a few
narrow fissures; it is rare that one encounters a large open cave.

1.3 KARST LANDFORMS DEVELOPMENT BY DISSOLUTION

All limestones and dolomites contain fractures that are susceptible to opening by dissolution.
Bedding planes, commonly defined by thin partings of shale, are almost ubiquitous, and very
thinly bedded carbonates are more prone to collapse before caves reach large dimensions.
Sinkholes are characteristic features of karst terrain. They are classified on a basis of origin
into solution, collapse, caprock, dropout, suffosion and buried sinkholes. Most caves are
formed in competent limestones. They originate along bedding planes and tectonic fractures,
which are enlarged into networks of open fissures, while favourable flow paths are enlarged
selectively into caves. Many caves passages are abandoned as empty dry tunnels when their
ground- water is captured by preferred routes. Alternatively they may be partially or wholly
filled with elastic sediments with or without calcite deposits.

1.4 CLIMATIC INFLUENCE ON LIMESTONE KARST

The wet tropics support the most prolific vegetation with the highest contents of CO, in their
soil air, and consequently their waters have the highest typical values for saturation with
respect to calcium carbonate. Water flows are largely a consequence of rainfall input (though
they can be increased locally by supplies of allogenic water draining off adjacent outcrops of
non-karstic rocks). In the wet tropical regions, dissolutional fretting is more intense, so joint-
guided fissures are deeper and the intervening residuals become pinnacles that may be 5-20 m
tall, entirely beneath the soil profile. Some clay-rich glacial tills are so impermeable that they
seal the rockhead from any dissolution effects, but most alluvial or glacial drift is permeable
enough that rockhead relief is created by subsoil dissolution.

An added factor in the maturity of the tropical karsts is their continued evolution throughout
the climatic variations of the Pleistocene. Though all landforms of the karst surface, and most
of the underground features, were formed by dissolution in the presence of carbonic acid
derived from carbon dioxide, there is an important group of caves that were formed by
sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid probably plays a major role in the very early stages of cave
develop- ment in many karst regions (before dissolution by carbonic acid dominates), but it
also accounts for isolated and anomalous cave passages and chambers in relatively immature
karst landscape.
 1.4.1 Types of limestone karst landscape
Geomorphologists recognise some broad types of karst on limestones, and each is developed
largely in a specific climatic regime. Sinkholes are a feature of all karst terrains. Glaciokarst
is distinguished by its limestone pavements, rock scars and deeply entrenched gorges. It
occurs at high altitudes or latitudes, where it was scoured by the ice and meltwater of
Pleistocene glaciers.

Fluviokarst has extensive dendritic systems of dry valleys that were cut by rivers before they
were captured by underground drainage into caves. It is therefore well developed on some of
the less cavernous limestones, including the Chalk Downs and the Cotswold Hills in England.
Most of it occurs in regions that experienced peri- glacial conditions during the cold stages of
the Pleistocene, when meltwater stream courses were re-activated over ground temporarily
sealed by permafrost. Cone karst (or fengcong karst) is dominated by repetitive conical hills
between closed depressions that are either stellate dolines or larger alluviated poljes, with
almost the only areas of flat ground on the polje floors. It is a very mature landscape, almost
totally restricted to tropical regions.

1.5 DOLOMITE AND ITS SINKHOLES

Strictly speaking, a limestone has calcite forming at least 90% of its carbonate minerals. With
only 50−90% as calcite, and 10−40% as dolomite, the rock is correctly called a dolomitic
limestone, though many are still described as limestones, either because the exact chemistry
has not been determined, or because the difference is generally irrelevant to the construction
engineer. A rock with dolomite forming more than 90% of its carbonate minerals is also
known as a dolomite. One with only 50−90% as dolomite, and 10−40% as calcite, may be
known as dolostone. Though this is the preferred term in some countries, the term dolomite is
still used for a much wider range of mineral compositions in most parts of the world.
Terminology in the pages of this book is simplified to either limestone or dolomite, and is
qualified with reference to content of insoluble impu- rities and calcite/dolomite ratio only
where necessary.

Secondary dolomites are more coarse-grained or saccharoidal in texture with plentiful

evidence of diagenetic replacement of calcite by dolomite, so that original textures and
structures, as well as the fossil content, are obscured or lost.
The mechanical properties of dolomites span about the same range as those of limestone,
with unconfined com- pressive strengths of 30−100 MPa for the intact rock.

1.6 CHALK AND ITS SINKHOLES

Chalk is a soft, fine-textured, white or grey, marine limestone of late Cretaceous or early
Tertiary age. However, there are variations on this definition. It describes most of the Chalk
in northern Europe, an Upper Cretaceous stratigraphic unit with a lithology that is largely
chalk. There are thin hard horizons within the Chalk, and it can have a reddish or greenish
colour due to the presence of iron oxide or glauconite respectively. The term is also used
more loosely to describe weak, soft and friable limestones of Tertiary age in various parts of
the world.

1.7 EVAPORITE ROCKS AND THEIR SINKHOLES

Evaporite deposits are formed by precipitation from saline waters that are concentrated
beyond the levels of mineral saturation by evaporation in lagoonal or lacustrine
environments. The vast bulk of evaporites are the sulphates (gypsum, CaSO4.2H2O, and
anhydrite, CaSO4) and rock salt (halite, NaCl).
 1.7.1 Dissolution and sinkholes on gypsum and anhydrite
Gypsum is rarely present in ancient evaporites at depths greater than about 1,000 m, where
anhydrite is the stable calcium sulphate mineral. Gypsum forms as the original precipitate and
survives the early stages of burial, before becoming unstable above a temperature of about
42°C, which occurs at a depth of about 1,200 m in areas with normal geothermal gradients.
The extent of hydration of anhydrite may be directly related to depth, but is also dependent
upon the ease with which water has access to anhydrite (Holliday, 1970).

Karst terrains on gypsum bear some comparisons with the types of karst developed on
limestones, and all contain sinkholes. Cone and tower karsts do not exist on gypsum, as these
landforms evolve during long periods of surface lowering, in which time gypsum beds are
totally removed by dissolution.
 1.7.2 Dissolution and sinkholes on salt
The solubility of rock salt (halite, NaCl) in water is 35.5% by weight, and is therefore 7,500
times more soluble than limestone. In wetter climates, salt only survives beneath a cover of
mudstone or drift, and its only karstic landforms may be shallow solution dolines in areas of
permeable drift cover.

1.8 MAN'S INFLUENCE ON DISSOLUTION AND SINKHOLES

Most of the world's sinkholes are inherited from natural erosion processes over geological
time, and are therefore largely prehistoric features. However, the major geohazard is created
by those sinkholes that are now active and therefore developing failure events. The vast
majority of these are induced or accelerated by man's own activities (Newton, 1987). Nearly
all of these are subsidence sinkholes that develope by soil failure within the lifetimes of
engineered structures, or even during the period of construction.

Any urbanisation can induce sinkholes and subsidence since it radically changes the way in
which water enters the ground compared with an open, undeveloped site. Where housing,
road surfaces and concrete structures render 50-80% of the surface area relatively
impermeable, infil- tration and percolation of precipitation occurs only in the remaining areas
of open ground. Furthermore, much of the water draining from built-over areas is concen-
trated into soakaways, and backfilled service trenches also tend to act as preferred. paths for
water ingress.