Question
Limestones behave differently in humid and arid climates. Why? What is the dominant and almost exclusive geomorphic process in limestone areas and what are its results ?
Solution
Limestones are permeable rocks with thinly bedded and highly jointed and cracked planes. So when the surface water percolates in it vertically it starts moving horizontally through the bedding planes, joints or through the materials themselves, causing the limestones to erode, thus creating a variety of insignificant, not easily perceptible land forms.
In arid regions water table is quite low below the surface and there is less amount of surface water.
It is due to this differential availability of water in these two areas, that makes limestone to behave differently. The most dominant and almost exclusive type of geomorphic process in limestone areas is that of processes of solution and deposition by the action of the groundwater.
The erosional landforms produced by the action of the groundwater are pools, sinkholes, lapies and limestone pavements. In areas of alternating beds of rocks with limestones caves are also formed. The depositional landforms in limestone areas by the action of ground water are stalctites, stalagmites and pillars.
