Karst in the Kalbinsky Ridge (East Kazakbstan)

Abstract

For the first time a largescale geomorphological mapping had been carried out in the course of search for placers, karst landforms and deposits filling karstic hollows were studied, their relative age was determined.

Three stages in karstification are distinguished: the Late Miocene- Pliocene, the end of the Pliocene- beginning of the Pleistocene, second half of the Pleistocene, a noticeable deceleration in the process having been traced throughout of the Late Cenozoic. Only karstic-erosional network develops-progresslvely since the Early Pleistocene. Under conditions of limited water supply the conditions do not f avour the heavy minerals concentration and placers formatibn within the karstic-erosional network.