Water - Creator of the Karst

20.273 square kilometers and 8.800 registered caves... land of the original karst. Water was the most important creator of the karst geomorphology. Huge caverns, some with the length over 20 km, some like abysses with the depth of 1500 m, but all created by the subterranean water flow through the limestone or dolomite.

Planinska jama (The Planina cave), one of the longest Slovenian water caves is a huge tunnel which is the subterranean bed of the Unica River. Five hundred meters from the entrance into the cave is a confluence of two underground rivers: Pivka River, which flows from Postojna polje through Postojna cave, and Rak River, which flows from Rakov Skocjan. This is the largest confluence of subterranean rivers in Europe.

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Entrance into the cave is on the southwestern part of Planina polje in the gable end valley below the 65 m high rocks. The length of the cave is 6.656 m.

The temperature of the cave is constant and the contrast between the indoor and outdoor temperature is usually quite high - on the pano is easily visible a layer of haze- another form of the water.

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Europe / Slovenia

Lat: 45° 49' 12" N
Long: 14° 14' 45" E

Elevation: 455

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

'oldie' Nikon CP 990

This event was a special 'time mark' of my family - it is the time of the birth of my third child, that is why my wife Betka was not able to participate with the pano this time. I wished to visualise the location where it is the confluence of two subterranean rivers, which is only 500 metres from the entrance into the cave, but I couldn't afford the whole day just to set the proper lighting. The 'photo-sampling' of the pano from the entrance to Planinska jama was an easy job comparing with the other cave panos but complicated with the blending because of the hight light contrast.

Planinska jama sodi med najdaljše slovenske vodne jame. Vhod v jamo je v zatrepni dolini pod 65 visko pečino v jugozahodnem delu Planinskega polja. V jami je 500 m od vhoda sotočje rek Pivke, ki teče iz Postojnskega polja skozi Postojnsko jamo, in Raka, ki teče iz Rakovega Škocjana. Od sotočja teče voda kot reka Unica na Planinsko polje. Sotočje rek Pivke in Raka je 'največje' sotočje podzemnih rek v Evropi. Dolžina jame je 6.656 m.

Dogodek na temo Voda v poletnem solisticiju 2005 je bil posebno časovno obeležje za mojo družino - bil je čas pričakovanja mojega tretjega otroka - zato moja žena Betka tokrat ni mogla sodelovati pri projektu. Prvotno sem želel narediti vizualizacijo sotočja, ki je 500 m od vhoda v jamo, vendar si nisem mogel privoščiti celega dneva za foto-vzorčenje, samo zato,da bi pripravil primerno osvetlitev znotraj jame.