Valvasor's explanation of the intermittent Lake Cerknica
Explicación del lago intermitente de Cerknica (Valvasor)
- Date
- 1689 · confidence high
- Place
- Lake Cerknica, Cerknica, Slovenia
- Credited to
- Johann Weikhard von Valvasor
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
In Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Crain, Valvasor described and explained that the lake appears and disappears through a system of caves and underground channels that fill and drain it. It is one of the earliest explanations of karst hydrology.
Valvasor was elected to the Royal Society in 1687 on the strength of a report on the lake, and the full work appeared in 1689. The word karst derives from the Slovene Kras; Cvijić's entry (1893) is later and distinct.
What it led to
- karst hydrology as a discipline in Carniola
- Valvasor's election to the Royal Society (1687) for his study