Paul you still mixing "apples and pears" in your examples. Did you ever hear about Dinaric Karst or Dinaric Alpine?
Yes, I have heard of "Dinaric Karst and Dinaric Alpine".
Yes. But both are totally irrelevant to this discussion. The 1:500000 scale Geological Map of SFR Yugoslavia published in 1970 by the Federal Geological Institute in Belgrade shows that the Visoko Region, Bosnia and Herzegovina, lacks the solidly cemented carbonates rocks needed for the development of classic Dinaric Karst. Instead, the bedrock underlying the intramountain basin, in which the Visoko Region lies, consists, as documented by this map, of Miocene lake deposits, which accumulated in this intramountain basin sometime between 5.3 to 23 million years ago. The units within the area of Visocica Hill are labeled "M1,2"; "M2"; "M2,3"; and "M3". The suffixe "M" designates rocks of Miocene age. The prefixes indicate oldest to youngest strata starting with 1 = Lower; 2 = Middle; and 3 = Upper. The two geologic units comprising the Bosnian "pyramids" are "M2,3" and "M2". According to the available published literature and other geologists, whom I have consulted, Unit "M2,3" consists of Middle to Upper Miocene "Lasva conglomerate", which contains an interlayered mixture of conglomerate, sandstone, and marlstone along with some clay and coal. As indicated by the ovals in the pattern for this unit, it contains a significant amount of conglomerate. The pebbles, found within these conglomerates, consist of limestone, sandstone, other sedimentary rocks and various igneous and metamorphic rocks derived from the adjacent mountains. Unit "M2" consists of Middle Miocene marl, sandstone, and clay along with some coal. The local bedrock is not suited to the large-scale development of the classic karst, which you refer to although some very small-scale dissolution features might form as the result of dissolution of the marlstones and carbonate gravel in the conglerates. The Dinaric Karst occurs in the limestones, dolomites, and marbles of the mountains surrounding the intramountain basin, in which the Visoko Region lies.
In addition, the fact that people use limestone to build structures does nothing to contradict another established fact that natural jointing can produce some rather nice rectangular blocks, which people can confused with man-made stonework. In one outcrop, the below pictures of a wave cut bench, where the soil, normally covering and hiding such jointed bedrock has been stripped off, show that natural jointing can produce multiple layers of generally rectilinear blocks of jointed bedrock lying on top of each other.
Tesellated Pavement
http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~kim/photos/t ... 3.jpg.html
November 20th, Tessellated Pavement
http://www.mvermeulen.com/oneyear/Photo ... y7/735.htm
Photos from the 30th Annual IAMSLIC Conference -
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/internal/li ... 000-16.jpg
(From
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/internal/li ... slic3.html )
The above pictures of the Tasmanian Tessellated pavement show multiple layers of sedimentary rock, which have been naturally fractured into generally rectangular blocks that lie as layers on top of each other.
Whether bedrock jointing is found in the United Kingdom, Tasmania, Wyoming, the Dinaric Alpine, the Visoko Region, or elsewhere, the same basic laws of physics and rock mechanics apply and jointing will form in according to type, strength, and direction of the forces applied to a layer of sedimentary rock. As a result, it is all the same "apples" and there is no scientific reason to disqualify an example because of location. The main factor is being able to find where bedrock is exposed and person can see it without the overlying soil hiding it. This can happen either by people artificially stripping the soil off the underlying bedrock or where the natural development of wave cut benches have stripped soil and bedrock, normally hiding the jointing, and exposing joint systems where we can see them. Arid climates are also good locations to find examples of jointed bedrock because they contain large areas of bedrock exposed without a thick soil cover.
It would be an interesting experiment to visit and examined the bedrock exposed quarries or borrow pits, which have been dug in local Miocene bedrock and in Miocene deposits filling adjacent intramountain basins.
Paul H.
