Żwiry i piaski rzek Słowacji

Abstract

GRAVELS AND SANDS OF THE SLOVAK RIVERS

ln Slovakia·the valleys of the Carpathian river' have plenty of gravel and sand deposits. Particular rich are the rivers flowing in the western area of Slovakia. The gravel and sand deposits here considered yield valuable material for concrete production. A rapid development of the Slovak industry forces to intense search for such deposits.

Since 1951, the author of the present paper occupies himself with the research works concerning the usefulness of the gravel and sand deposits in concrete production. His research works were carried on in the area of the following Carpathian rivers and their tributaries: Wag, Hron, Laborca, Hornad, Orava, Slana, Ondava, Dunajec and Poprad within the Slovak territory, as well as Danube, Turiec, Rajcanka, Potok Studenecky, Kysuca, Nitra, Zitava, Ipla, Carna, Svinka, Torysa, Topla, Lomnica and Kamenec. The researches were carried on both in the field and in the laboratory. The researches embraced granulometrical composition of gravels, contents of sand in sample, degree of silting up of ·gravels, contents of humus, petrographical composition of gravels, flattening of gravels, specific weight of sample, volume weight of sample soaking capacity of the largest grain and usefulness·of the deposit for industrial purpose. In addition, also mineralogical analyses were made of the sands from the Dunajec river (heavy minerals).

Analyses of gravels of the Slovak rivers have demonstrated that the Dunajec river gravels are most useful in the industrial production, mainly on account of a great content of quartzites and quartz. The resources of the sands and gravels occurring in the Danube river valley (Czechoslovakian territory) are thought to be about 10 milliard m³.