从世界展望中国喀斯特研究

STUDY ON KARST IN CHINA FROM A WORLD PERSPECTIVE

中国喀斯特面积广大、类型多样,世界上任何国家无法与此相比。建国以来,中国地理、地质学家对喀斯特进行了大量研究,在经济建设服务中取得非常有益的经验。但是,欧美地区的地貌学家对中国喀斯特研究工作至今仍然不够了解,缺乏应有的认识。为此,本文对中国喀斯特的形成因素、主要地貌类型(峰林、峰丛、石林等)、沉积地貌(生物钙华、边石池、建设性瀑布),以及开发利用问题进行了扼要的论述,井与世界上一些著名的喀斯特地区进行了比较,表明中国喀斯特研究已取得非常显著的成就,为促进世界喀斯特科学的发展作出了重要贡献。

Limestone and karst in China Permeate almost every aspect of its physical geography. Apart from its extent, the great variety of karst in China is perhaps the most striking feature to anyone from outside the country. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, a considerable work on the scientific study of karst in China has been developed by Chinese geographers and geologists, but geomorphologists in the west were largely unaware of Chinese ideas of karst. However, it has been said that 'Chinese geomorphology is very Chinese' (Stoddart, D.R., 1987) and the concepts and ideas of karst in China are in many ways different from those in Europe and America. It is the fact that Chinese geographers are more concerned with groupings of landforms than with individual ones and emphasis in China has also been on the hills, or positive landforms, whereas in Europe much more attention is given to negative, closed depression, forms. By comparison with karst terrians in the world, however, the controls on the karst, some types of karst landform mainly including Guilin tower karst, Guizhou cone karst and Yunnan stone forests, the depositional landforms in the karst(tufa, rimestone pool and constructive waterfalls) and the exploitation of the karst in China have briefly been described and discussed, it could be seen that the contribution of China to world karst studies has been both varied and distinctive. The teams of engineers, geographers and geologists have made many original advances in solving its problems. The opening up of the Chinese karst areas to the rest of the world has enabled foreign scientists to learn from the Chinese experiences and to see the beautiful and spectacular landforms in the karst. we can therefore look foward to much international discussion on the origin of the landforms and their underground hydrology and the difficulties of their exploitation.