cone karst

Cone and tower karst is a type of karst topography primarily found in tropical regions. It forms when thick limestone layers are fractured, leading to the dissolution of bedrock along these joints and fractures. This process carves deep gorges, dividing the limestone into isolated blocks.

In some areas, these blocks are eroded into rounded, cone-shaped hills, known as cone karst. In other locations, the gorges deepen and widen, creating a lower plain with remnants of the limestone blocks standing as steep, isolated towers, forming tower karst. The surfaces of these cones and towers are often jagged and sculpted by solution, featuring pinnacles, pits, and crevices. This landscape is a result of underground drainage and the removal of bedrock through dissolution, without the development of surface stream valleys.12