ZHANG Zhi-cai1,2, CHEN Xi1,2, LIU Jin-tao1,2, PENG Tao3, SHI Peng1,2, YAN Xiao-long1,2
(1.State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China;
2.College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; 3.State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China)
Abstract: As important storage and transportation space, epikarst is a main influence factor on the water cycle in karst areas, and there are some influential factors, such as climate, lithology, landform and so on, affect it. The study is implemented in a small watershed of Chenqi within Puding County，Guizhou Province. Profile curvature was used to describe hillslope terrain, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was used to investigate epikarst depth. Based on these results, the influence of topography on epikarst has been studied. Depressions on karst mountains have better hydrodynamic and dissolution conditions, thus they could accelerate the development of epikarst. There is an inverse relationship between epikarst depth and profile curvature, and the concave hillsolpe has a thicker epikaret zone than the convex hillslope. The results of field investigations also show that the depressions among hillslopes have thicker epikaret zones than the hillslopes.
Key words: epikarst; topography; profile curvature; GPR.
