Silicate karren

Small scale sculpturing (karren) analogous to forms on limestone are found on a variety of rocks, and in a variety of climates.

Selected photographs and diagrams

To view full size images, click on the displayed image.

Solution pans (kamenitza) on the crest of a granite inselberg, Eyre Peninsula, SA.
S921530.jpg

Vertical solution runnels (wandkarren) on a granite face.
Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island, SA.
S950817.jpg

Large solution runnel (rinnenkarren) on a granite surface.
Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island, SA.
S950818.jpg

Small shallow meandering sandstone runnels are being actively fed from tiny solution tubelets. Abner Range, NT.
KG080382.JPG

Detail of one of the small sandstone runnels on the Abner Range, NT. The shiny white material may be a silica deposit.
KG080388.JPG

Sandstone "pseudo-karren" is of uncertain genesis. It may be a type of vertically elongated tafoni, as one finds all gradations between the distinctive elongate types shown here and normal tafoni.
Vertical flutes on the case-hardened sandstone wall of a stone city "street", at Caranbirini, NT.
Stereopair - view cross-eyed.
KG080268.JPG

Vertical flutes on a sandstone pillar, at Litchfield "Lost City", NT.
Stereopair - view cross-eyed.
KG082098.JPG & KG082099.JPG

Go to Main Index menu