Sulfate and Chloride Karstification and Its Economical Significance

Easily soluble rocks, such as sulfatic and chloridic salts, show a wide spectrum of karstification and distribution, especially in central Europe (Upper Permian Zechstein and also Triassic rocks). Surrounding older rocks of Variscan orogeny, (e.g. gypsum, anhydrides, halites, and potassium salts) are subsurface deposits, which are in contact with ground water. Very intensive karstifications, e.g. sinkholes, depressions, subsidence and landslides, in the vicinity of worked-out salt mines are found active in the present. Therefore, they are a permanent danger for engineering, mining, and public affairs.