Nadja Zupan Hajna

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• Doctorate of geological sciences
• Principal Research Associate at Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Our dear friend and colleague, Prof. Dr. Andrej Mihevc, passed away in October 2024 after a long battle with an incurable illness.

Račiška Pečina, a limestone cave in the Classical karst in southwestern Slovenia, which belongs to the External Dinarides (Slovenian Cave Register No. 935; 45°30’12.10’’N; 14°09’00.83’’E; 609 m a.s.l.), has received international recognition for its exceptional sedimentary section. The cave’s sediments, which span 3.4 Ma, provide a continuous and d...

The Slavinski ravnik corrosional plain represents a contact karst area, located south of the Postojna basin in the NW part of the Dinarides, formed at the transition between flysch and carbonate rocks. The area is strongly affected by regional tectonic uplift, climatic changes, erosion, and sedimentation from impermeable rocks. The main contributio...

A flowstone section in the Račiška pečina Cave (Classical Karst, SW Slovenia) records multiple chronostratigraphic and palaeoclimatic proxies that can be correlated with other records on the global scale (Mediterranean region, Japan). Its upper part has an excellent record of the Matuyama/Brunhes (M/B) magnetic reversal. The M/B reversal zone, whic...

So far, the longest known unroofed cave in Slovenia has been found on the Slavinski ravnik, southwest of Postojna. From its position on the surface, its shape, and its containing sediments, we can infer its spatial and temporal development, as well as the processes and evolution of the contact karst in its hinterland. The corrosional plain Slavinsk...

Cave sediments from the Lipiška Jama Cave, which is located on the south edge of the Kras Plateau, were the subject of the study. Lipiška Jama is a 1400 m long, 20 degrees inclined to the SSW with a recent epiphreatic and vadose regime. The aim of this study was the paleomagnetic research of allogenic and flowstone sediments. We sampled three allog...

Brazil’s caves, home to diverse species and minerals, were stripped of protections by a recent presidential decree.

The Slavina Corrosional Plain is a levelled karst area located between Postojna and Pivka Basin, Karst Plateau, and Vipava Valley, developed in Eocene, Paleocene, and Cretaceous Limestone. The northern part was influenced by allogenic waters, forming a distinctive contact karst geomorphology, among which caves are present, extending towards the sou...

Establishing a chronology of events is a critical step in reconstructing the palaeoclimate and it is important for all types of environmental records, including speleothems. Here, we analysed a unique series of flowstones deposited between 3.2 Ma (marine isotope stage (MIS) Km3) and 0.08 Ma (MIS 5). The studied flowstones are located in a classic k...

The sedimentological record in the Račiška pečina cave sediment sequence is one of the best-preserved cave records of palaeoenvironmental changes for the last 3.4 Ma. However, as it is typical for cave terrestrial records, it contains many hiatuses in sedimentation. The section study helped to change the state of knowledge and understanding of the...

The retreat of ice shelves and glaciers over the last century provides unequivocal evidence of recent global warming. Glacierets (miniature glaciers) and ice patches are important components of the cryosphere that highlight the global retreat of glaciers, but knowledge of their behaviour prior to the Little Ice Age is lacking. Here, we report the u...

Speleothems provide one of the most continuous terrestrial archives. However, due to changing conditions in temperature/humidity or the chemistry of percolating water, sedimentation breaks (hiatuses) and erosional events are possible and are commonly recorded in speleothems. Sedimentation breaks with durations longer than the resolution of the stud...

The Dinaric karst is geographically and geologically the carbonate part of the Dinaric Mountains on the Balkan Peninsula between the Adriatic Sea and the Pannonian Basin. The Dinaric karst is “classical” karst because of many reasons: the term karst (kras) was derived from its NW part (Kras plateau); from the region originate such international ter...

Karst aquifers are hydraulic structures where dissolution conduits dictate complex spatial and temporal flow patterns. These aquifers are vertically divided into phreatic, epiphreatic and vadose zones. While the phreatic zone is permanently saturated, providing the major contribution to base flow, most of the flood event water is transferred throug...

In karst areas, underground water mainly flows through conduits and fissures due to the solubility of carbonate rocks (Palmer in Cave geology. Cave Books, Dayton, Ohio, p. 454, 2007).

For understanding geological structure of karst areas (Palmer in Cave geology, Cave Books, Dayton, Ohio, p 454, 2007) it is inevitably to have detailed geological maps.

In this chapter, we review the status of the hypothesis that the dichotomy between shallow and deep subterranean habitats is a fundamental one, updating the original book-length presentation of this hypothesis (Culver and Pipan 2014), and consider the status of dim light habitats, such as leaf litter and partially de-roofed caves (Mejía-Ortíz et al...

Around 13% of the Earth’s surface is covered by carbonate rocks, on which a specific karst landscape with extensive underground water system develops.

About 44% of Slovenia’s surface consists of carbonate rocks. Karst geomorphology and over 13,000 known caves represent a significant proportion of its landscape. Various sediments present on the karst surface in the form of clastic or precipitated deposits can cover or fill smaller or extended areas and they can also accumulate in the caves.

In Western Slovenia, a paleokarstic surface with clayey bauxite deposits separates late? Cenomanian to late Turonian strata from middle/late Coniacian palustrine?, peritidal and shallow-marine carbonate deposits along the external-most preserved parts of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP).

The rock relief of karst phenomena is often a revealing and graphic trace of their formation and development. It is composed of rock forms.

Quantification of present-day fundamental chemical processes in caves (dissolution and calcite precipitation) can provide basic objective information on rates, make possible comparison with other speleogenetic processes, and provide insights into spatial and temporal variability as well as factors controlling both processes.

This chapter introduces Škocjanske jame (Škocjan Caves) and their immediate karstic surroundings to those who are not already familiar with the place, and its overall history over several centuries.

Research data management planning is a key practice in science today, with a fundamental role in the organisation, use and reuse of research data, as well as in the verification of results.

Caves represent a discontinuity in a rock matrix and are considered as “dark openings” into the underground. Typical cave features—voids, cracks, fissures, or conduits—are filled with air (or mixture of various gases), water, or solid inorganic and/or organic material.

Abstract. The retreat of ice shelves and glaciers over the last century provides unequivocal evidence of recent global warming. Glacierets (miniature glaciers) are an important component that highlights the global retreat of glaciers, but knowledge of their behaviour prior to the Little Ice Age is lacking. Here, we present subglacial carbonate depo...

In this article, we present issues arising from Terrestrial Laser Scanning of large natural caves using the example of Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Regarding pre-existing tachymetric survey of the passages and volumes calculated from them, the scanning of such a large cave was an even bigger challenge for the team. The cave of almos...

A large karst doline at section Hrastje – Lešnica in the Dolenjska region (SE Slovenia) was uncovered during the construction of Slovene highway No. A2. Its fill consists of brownish-yellow clay to silt with plant remains and ferrugineous coatings after root casts and gastropods (paleosol horizon) in the bottom, and overlying thick lacustrine lamin...

We synthesize information on results and age of cave sediments from Slovenia. The studied sites were mostly from the Classical Karst which is situated in the NW part of Dinarides and some from the Slovenian Southern Alps. Protected in caves, sediments are generally well preserved and reveal an exceptionally good, multi-proxy record of surface envir...

Palygorskite is fibrous mineral representing the transitional phase between chain silicates and layer silicates with modulated phyllosilicate structure. Although often found in carbonate environments, it forms quite uncommon constituent of cave fills. Palygorskite occurs in cave fills in two forms: (1) allogenic palygorskite which in arid and semia...

Noctis Labyrinthus is an intricate system of Late Hesperian and Early Amazonian linear troughs and rounded pits connecting the Tharsis volcanic rise and western Valles Marineris next to Martian equator. This study was focused on three light-toned deposits (LTDs) located within a trough located in the western part of Noctis Labyrinthus, centered at...

Kahf Kharrat Najem Cave is a small cave in United Arab Emirates (UAE) that hosts a bat colony which is the source of guano deposits and peculiar centimeter-long yellowish stalactites. The mineralogy and geochemistry of these deposits were analyzed using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopic microanalysis (EDX), scann...

The x-ray powder diffraction identification of clay minerals both in bulk samples and in separated clay fraction confirmed the presence of palygorskite in samples of cave sediments from Wadi Haqil (the western slopes of Musandam Mountains; Ras Al-Khaimah Emirate, UAE). Samples contain quartz, gypsum, smectite, kaolinite, calcite, and palygorskite,...

The entire landscape in question belongs to the Krka River basin. Both surface and underground waters flow towards the Temenica and Igmanica rivers which act as the local base level. It can be assumed that the larger part of the motorway section of the Sv. Ana variant is draining towards the Temenica River. The study of the hydrological conditions...

The bottom of the Vipava Valley is made mostly of clastic rocks and sediments of different age and origin. The motorway between Vipava and Selo initially runs across the agriculturally changed Quaternary alluvium sediments, then it crosses the slightly undulating landscape made of Lower Eocene non-carbonate and carbonate turbidites, and in its last...

Denudation of the karst surface and the corresponding earthworks necessary for road construction revealed a myriad karst features. These include old caves, which are either empty or filled with sediment; shafts, draining water from the surface into the karst interior; and various dolines. Caves that were opening up in the motorway route between Čeb...

The construction works of the motorway section Pluska–Ponikve uncovered the characteristics of subsoil formation of the karst area of the Dolenjska region, which is covered with more or less thick layers of fine-grained alluvium and soil. The karst surface is dissected by stone forests and stone teeth, the exception being strips of karren, i.e. sto...

Between 1994 and 2002, archaeological test probes were excavated in a great number of dolines along the motorway route between Divača and Kozina, thus opening up the possibility of examining the mineral composition of the clastic sediment layers found in them. In dolines, red and yellow sediments prevailed, occurring in several shades and transitio...

The motorway section from Divača to Kozina, stretching 7.5 km, revealed 50 old caves, most of them filled with alluvium, many of which unroofed, and six of them qualifying as shafts. The old caves were once, in a time when the underground water table was still high enough, characterized by through-flowing water. At that time, the aquifer was encase...

The karst surface in the area of the motorway section Ponikve–Hrastje is most distinctly characterized by its subsoil formation. The lower parts of the surface, dolines and the slope notches in particular were covered with relatively thick layers of alluvium and soil, which is why the rock beneath these features displays typical signs of subsoil fo...

Škocjanske jame Caves (a system of a large number of caves) in the karst area of the Škocjan Caves Regional Park are on the list of World Heritage by Unesco and also on the Ramsar list of wetlands. The importance of these caves is in their position, in their function as a sink and as a part of the water system of the karst aquifer, and also in a un...

Unroofed caves are old caves that were revealed on account of the lowering of the karst surface. They are preserved by their infill—mostly alluvium and flowstone. It became clear during the motorway construction undertaking in Slovenia that unroofed caves constitute a relatively common karst landform. In fact, more common than karstologists had ima...

From the time of their sedimentation until today, the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Paleogene limestones of the south-western Slovenia underwent karstification over several karst periods and were subject to a number of karstification and epikarst development phases. Due to denudation, the epikarst, where the rock is markedly dissected by typical surfa...

The S-647 Cave was uncovered during the process of constructing the left tube of the Kastelec tunnel and was unknown until then. It is over 550 m long and 50 m deep. The eastern part descends evenly and reaches its lowest accessible point at the altitude of 315 m, i.e. 47 m under the bottom of the tunnel. The western part ascends gently so that the...

A sediment profile for palaeomagnetic research was taken in the filled karst depression during highway construction in the section Hrastje–Lešnica, on the pass between Karteljevo and Novo mesto in the Dolenjska region. The depression was filled with greyish laminated to thin bedded clayey deposits, rather uncommon in the area, where reddish-brown h...

Slovenia and Croatia are connected with only one motorway that connects capitals, Ljubljana and Zagreb, while the motorway between Maribor and Zagreb and semi-motorway between Koper and Pula are currently under construction. To make the connection between Croatia and Italy safer and more efficient by diverting traffic from local roads, from 2005 on...

South of Divača a cave previously completely filled with yellow fluvial clastic sediments was exposed on the eastern edge of the motorway in 1997. The cross-section of the cave was app. 6 m high, with a few metres of ceiling above it. In view of the knowledge available back then, it could be assumed that applying the palaeomagnetic method was the o...

The earthworks during construction of the motorway section Lešnica–Kronovo revealed a karst surface and a part of the epikarst. Both were most distinctly characterized by their subsoil formations, i.e. the development underneath the thicker layers of alluvia and soil. The water percolating through them intersected the carbonate rocks, limestone, an...

Limestone along the Bič–Korenitka motorway route is tectonically heavily fractured, forming broad collapsed and crushed zones, where it is often fractured to the level of tectonic breccia. This is understandable, as the area in question is part of the Sava compressive wedge which has undergone several phases of tectonic processes. Unlike southweste...

During the motorway construction around Divača, construction works had unearthed a large number of dolines and caves filled with mechanic sediments. The clastic sediments in some of them have been subjected to in-depth analyses. A sediment analysis has shown that some of these depressions were in fact old caves, filled with fluvial allochthonous se...

The presentation was made to present purpose and results of work on Project ZIVO! (IPA SLO/CRO) and many years of mutual cooperation between researchers from Slovenia and Croatia to spread the knowledge of scientific findings about karst, caves and the water sources and importance of their protection. The karst is not just about the world-renowned...

Trije profili jamskih sedimentov (v fosilni jami blizu Divače, v Divaški jami in v Trhlovci) so bili preučeni na Krasu blizu Divače. Mineraloška analiza izpričuje relativno enotno sestavo lahke frakcije in kaže na glavni izvor v preperelih ostankih eocenskega fliša. Nekaj mineralov je produkt preparevanja (npr. gibbsit). Podrobna magnetostratigrafs...

The comprehensive knowledge of karst surface, caves, waters and biodiversity were examined with special emphasis on planning for environmental management and land use in karst regions using examples of projects performed by the sta from the Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU. Based on the knowledge of karst, karst phenomena, karst waters and karst b...

Osovniška jama je bila odkrita leta 2001 med izkoriščanjem srednjemiocenskega apnenca v kamnolomu Pijevci v vzhodnem delu Slovenije. Subpanonski osameli kras je značilen za ta del Slovenije. Ta kras je razvit na majhnih otokih plitvega apnenca. Subpanonski osameli kras je poseben tip krasa na litotamnijski apnencih, kjer so površinske oblike dobro...

Beško-Ocizeljski jamski sistem je razvit v območju kontakta med paleocenskim apnencem in eocenskim flišem na nadmorski višini 350 m na jugozahodu Slovenije. Plasti apnenca generalno vpadajo proti NW, najizrazitejše prelomne strukture so v dinarski in prečnodinarski smeri. S fliša na kontakt z apnencem pritekajo trije večji in en manjši potok, ki po...

V vzorcih jamskih klastičnih sedimentov se velikokrat nahajajo velike količine drobnih karbonatnih zrn. Ugotovila sem, da je njihov izvor v mehkih belih conah preperele karbonatne kamnine s sten jamskih rovov. Preperele cone apnenca in dolomita nastajajo na jamskih stenah, kadar nanje deluje selektivna korozija. Nepopolno raztapljanje pripravi karb...

Karst is a type of landscape with special surface, underground and hydrological features and phenomena. Its main characteristic is dissolution of the carbonate rocks by water enriched with CO2 as the dominant morphological process, removal of the rock in the form of solution and prevalent underground drainage that forms caves. In Slovene language,...

The road runs in the NW–SE direction across two landscape units: across the bottom of the Vipava Valley and the southwestern slopes of Mount Nanos, Breg and Rebrnice. The geological, geomorphological, speleological, and hydrological diversity of the Slovene karst has been demonstrated also by the study of karstification of breccia that have been fo...

The northwestern part of the motorway section between Hrastje and Lešnica runs on a typical Dolenjska lowland. The landscape there is covered with laterally transforming and relatively thick layers of alluvia and soil. The soil water is located near the surface, with fluviokarst prevailing. Here we can find individual karst formations, including sm...

The unroofed cave from which samples for the palaeomagnetic analysis were taken, is located to the northeast of Kozina, near the existing Ljubljana–Koper main road, in the cutting which was formed during the construction of the Divača–Klanec motorway. The sampled profile consists of more than 5 m of alluvium in two main sequences. The lower sequenc...

A large part of motorways in Slovenia runs across the karst aquifers which are an important source of drinking water supply. Contamination washed off road surfaces by precipitation water can be a great threat to the quality of water sources. When the water, and with it harmful substances, enters the karst underground, it flows away rapidly through...

The largest unroofed cave in the entire motorway route across Classical Karst was the 230 m long unroofed cave named Brezstropa jama which was unearthed near the village of Povir. It contained flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites and various sediments. Inside the cave, flowstone has been preserved in the form of crusts, massive flowstone heaps, and...

Between Klanec and Črni Kal, on a 6.5 km route of the motorway, 67 caves opened during earthworks, road cutting and tunnel digs. The majority consisted of old caves, i.e. caves which once had water passing through. Two thirds of these caves were filled with alluvium. Research carried out in these caves augmented knowledge about the development of t...

The motorway route between Dane and Fernetiči penetrates the karst ridge near Sežana, running over the karst plain to the border with Italy. The karst developed in Cretaceous limestone, which is intersected by smaller faults; this was best visible during the tunnel excavation under the Tabor Hill. It is quite remarkable the extent to which the surf...

Unroofed caves are an important karst form that makes up a part of the karst surface and epikarst, and provides us with valuable evidence of the karst development. They are old caves that became exposed by the lowering of the karst surface. In fact they are preserved by their fill—mostly fine-grained alluvium. It is also often that they feature pre...

Impervious surfaces of road networks accumulate contaminants and pollutants, which are washed off during rain and snowstorm events into nearby waters and lands. Especially in areas with a developed traffic network, runoff from motorways is a significant source of pollution. Various protection and remediation measures were developed and implemented...

Although in the vicinity of Trebnje only 1000 m2 of the stone forest have been uncovered, it is possible to infer its main characteristics in terms of form. The subsoil columns are relatively close to one another and are positioned into strips. Their peaks are mostly at the same level. Columns can be divided into two types. The larger ones are prev...

Caves are important markers of surface evolution, since they are, as a general rule, linked with ancient valley bottoms by their springs. However, caves can only be dated indirectly by means of the sediments they contain. If the sediment is older than common dating methods, one has to use multiple dating approaches in order to get meaningful result...

The Beka-Ocizla cave system extends at the contact between Palaeocene limestone and Eocene flysch at an altitude of 350 m in a shallow depression called Loke. Six known caves are connected to this cave system: Ocizeljska jama (Ocizla cave), Blažev spodmol (Blaž’s rock shelter), Maletova jama s slapom (Maletova jama cave with waterfall), Jama z nara...

The chapter deals with geomorphological analysis, morphostructural units and development of the karst relief on the territory of the planned railway line. The geomorphological analysis shows that among relief forms we can find tiny corrosion forms such as rain flutes and karren, and karst hollows such as solution dolines and collapse dolines. For t...

The geomorphological and speleogenetic history of the investigated area depends to a great extent on the geodynamics of the marginal parts of the fold and thrust belt of the Dinaric orogene or the underthrusting of the Istrian Peninsula below the Dinaric range, especially from Middle Miocene on. In the process, mainly sedimentary rocks of the Mesoz...

Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU is involved in individual projects related to the development and protection of the natural and cultural heritage of karst areas, regional planning, water supply systems, the construction of transportation infrastructure, etc. After two already published books (Karstology and Development Challenges on Karst I and I...

It is important to determine the directions and characteristics of the underground water flow from the area of the planned railway line towards karst springs within its impact area. In this chapter hydrogeological characteristics of the karst section, known directions and characteristics of the underground water flow, bacteriological indicators and...

Cavernosity of the Classical Karst, karstification of the karst in the area between Divača and Črni Kal based on the cores of boreholes which were dug into depths reaching as deep as 150–350 m, karstological research made during the construction of motorways across Slovenian Karst, anticipated cavernosity along the planned railway line, and biology...

This book is the result of joint work and many years of mutual cooperation between researchers from Slovenia and Croatia. It was made as part of the transboundary project ŽIVO! Življenje – voda! (Life – Water!) (IPA CBC SI-HR 2007-2013), which involved the participation of authors from project partner institutions as well as invited authors who are...

A proposed railway on the 5th European Railway Corridor (Venice-Kiev) between the northern Adriatic ports of Koper (Slovenia) and Trieste (Italy) and the interior of Slovenia required extensive karstological studies and planning. This book contains the knowledge gained from these studies as well as further information on the regional karst surface...

This paper presents karstological prospecting of selected areas in Ras Al-Khaimah Emirate, UAE. Several locations in Musandam Mts. have been prospected for caves, karst springs and surface karst features. Several smaller (10-20 m long) solutional caves have been discovered and surveyed on the slopes of wadis. They exhibit relatively simple assembla...

Raziskave, predstavljene v monografiji, so bile posvečene nepopolnemu raztapljanju apnencev in dolomitov v kraških jamah; to je pojavljanju debelih, mehkih con »topnega« ostanka karbonatnih kamnin. S terenskimi in laboratorijskimi analizami sem skušala spoznati, kaj se dogaja v karbonatnih kamninah med preperevanjem in zakaj se popolnoma ne raztopi...

This work describes karst landforms observed in the northern Sinus Meridiani region located between 1°18'N to 2°30'N latitude and 2°30'W to 0°13'W longitude, which covers approximately 9,100 square kilometres, characterized by spectral signatures of evaporite minerals. An integrated analysis of the Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) High Resolution Imagi...

In January 2011, we were visiting Ras Al-Khaimah Mountains in the Northern Emirate of United Arab Emirates with the purpose to find some new caves. There are several big caves known in Oman, but none really big in the UAE. Several areas in Ras Al-Khaimah emirate on the Musandam Peninsula were surveyed, particulary in the northern part of Oman Mount...

There are many important karst regions around the world, but the Dinaric karst remains the “classical” karst for many reasons. A large limestone region with similar style of landscape, it is the type-site for many features and phenomena. The term karst (kras) is derived from the Kras plateau (the northwest part of the Dinaric karst). From the regio...

Davide Baioni, Nadja Zupan Hajna & Forese Carlo Wezel: Karst landforms in an interior layered deposit within the Coprates Chasma, Mars The Coprates Chasma forms part of the backbone of the Valles Marineris canyon system. In the westernmost part of the chasma in an embayment on the northern wall a mound of layered material rises from the chasma floo...