CRYPTOKARST

   A karst term used to describe (a) the result of subsurface removal of limestone taking place beneath permeable loess resulting in a loss of limestone and subsequent slow subsidence of the loess without noticeable surface expression, (b) the initial effects of intergranular solution of rock when there is practically no movement of water from microcavity to microcavity, (c) the karst that develops in chalk beneath a mantle of its residual clay and chert, and (d) pockets in limestone which are filled with terra rossa or other residual material and which may be actively forming, arrested in development, or ‘inherited’. Because this term has been used for at least four different meanings, it is recommended that it be abandoned [17].