WILLIAM MORRIS DAVIS,ANTON MELIK,LEVEL TOP RIDGES AND SLOPE PROCESSES IN SLOVENIA.

Professor Anton Melik (1890 --1966)as the leading Slovenian geographer (1927 --1965)was a crucial person who,with lectures in geomorphology and publications,introduced the concept of erosion cycle of W.M.Davis into Slovenian geomorphology.His morphogenetics of the mountainous part of Slovenia is also based on the Austrian geologists and Slovenian geomorphologist I.Rakovec.For the hilly areas on the margin of Slovenia he expected the best results from using the concept of W.M.Davis and Serbian geomorphologist Jovan Cviji) who studied terraces in northern [umadija on southern border of the Pannonian Tertiary Sea. In the 1950s A.Melik sent his assistants and collaborators to map terraces of the Slovenian hills in the drainage area of Danube's tributaries Mura,Drava and Sava and in the hinterland of the Adriatic Sea -- Bay of Triest (Slovenian part of Istria and Brda of Gorizia -- Gorica)).In these hills we found no proper Pliocene terraces and niveaus.Instead of them,we proclaimed the horizontally leveled tops of ridges for the remnants of primary surface.According to the mapped level ridges,published mostly in the Geografski zbornik,they have even in the 60 km long hills of Slovenske gorice the same altitude and no inclination along the main rivers. The present article denies the opinion on level top ridges as an indicator of the primary surface. According to the slope processes theory they are the result of the permanent surface lowering by chem- ical erosion.On the tops of ridges the chemical erosion of the ground water is the only process,as on the water divide the rainwater flows below the surface and there is no surface run-off.But on both sides,this water comes out in springs on the upper slopes.The lower parts of slopes are formed by soil erosion and occasionally faster movements of the weathered mantle (creeping,sliding). The above-mentioned hills in the hinterland of the Bay of Triest are built of Eocene flysch and in E and NE Slovenia of. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Geographica is the property of Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)