Veress Márton: A Bakony természettudományi kutatásának eredményei 23. - Covered karst evolution... (Zirc, 2000)

PREFACE (Jakucs, L.)

PREFACE This volume is the most comprehensive professional study on the covered karst phenomena of the Northern Bakony to date, a remarkable product of the Hungarian karst geomorphological school of genetic approach. Gratitude is due to the Bakony Natural History Museum and personally to the geologist and director, Dr János Futó, who found a way of publication worthy of the contents and thus contributed to making the achievements of major research efforts and the wonders of a less known karst region available for the public. Naturally, the value of a book is measured by the joy it brings to the author and reader. Márton Veress' book must be valuable since it is a profound analysis of mostly unknown karst phenomena in the mountains selected on the one hand and also clearly reflects the obsession of its author on the other. He has been exploring the secrets of the Bakony Mountains for long years with enthusiasm knowing no fatigue and with commitment expecting no reward. Only this burning passion in research could make one capable of overcoming obstacles and compensating with deep joy for the sacrifices of work. The greatest joy on Earth is that of acquiring knowledge deserved by hard work. Whether the Reader, studying Márton Veress' book, also shares this joy with me, I do not know. He/she will experience it himself/herself depending on his/her previous level of acquiantance with the topic, sense of style and temperament. As for myself, I like to read about new things in a new context - even if I do not totally agree with the interpretations. The contents of the volume have been discussed in detail on the occasion of a Ph. D. dissertation at the university of Szeged. Even at the end a series of questions and confronting views between the author and me remained. For instance, the significance of mixing corrosion in the origin of blind chimneys in caves and of spherical cauldrons on cave ceilings as well as the part the solid load of water-courses arriving from non-karstic catchments play in karst cavernation are judged differently. This is, however, no problem. It is a good thing to have debates. This is the reason why Márton Veress' dissertation was rated „Summa cum laude" at Szeged. A magnificient side of science is that, our experience not being identical, constant debates are generated. Toil and hard battles bring forward knowledge on the world. Steel is hardened in fire. A very peculiar significance of the book is that it is not restricted to the inventory of regional karstification properties in a geomorphologically less explored area as indicated in the title but goes much beyond a mere description of landforms in the region under study. Theoretical generalisations and the creation of new concepts are also attempted at. The interactions of causes and effects, of influencing factors and resulting landforms are analysed in order to reach regularities. In this sense Márton Veress' work is more than a landscape description, it is also a treatise in general karst geomorphology. The most modern criterion of contemporary geomorphology, the demand for revealing multilateral systems of causes, is excellently manifested here. Through this, a regulation of sensu lato genetic complexity of covered karst landforms to be studied by modern techniques of the earth sciences and landscape ecology is demonstrated. Márton Veress is well-versed in the literature on the Northern Bakony and the nomothetical communications of researchers of previous times on the region. He does not only contribute to this particular knowledge. Relying on sedimentological, pedological and cartographic methods not commonly applied in classical research on karst geomorphology, sometimes rather surprisingly new scientific theses are formulated for the factors which regulate covered karst development. The comprehensive, exacting and painstaking nature