Obcasný pramen / The Occasional Well near Stratená (Slovakian Paradise National Park) - Places of Geologic Significance on Waymarking.com

The Occasional Well is a natural spring which originates in the hydrogeological structure of the karst plateau Geravy under Raven’s Rock (Havrania skala) rock formation in the southern part of The Slovak Paradise National Park. It is an occasional well – or periodic spring – with water flow varying from zero to 45.6 L/sec. This phenomenon occurs as water from the surface enters the ground and fills up the hollows and spaces in the soil. When every available space is full, meaning that the underground aquifer is saturated with water, the water surfaces through and flows out of the natural spring.

The Occasional Well under Raven’s Rock was first described by Dionýz Štúr in 1863 and 1867. Dionýs Štúr was a world famous geologist and scientist who founded modern stratigraphy in Slovakia. He determined the relationship and recorded the differences between the Alps and the Carpathian mountains. He is also well-known for his geological research in both Slovakia (Hron and Váh river valleys, the Low Tatra mountains and the Spiš-Gemer Ore-mountains) and adjacent countries (Bohemia, the Alp, Croatia). In 1865, Dionýz Štúr made the first geological map. Besides being a director of the Imperial Geological Institute and the founder of the Geological Museum in Vienna, he also studied all the geological formations in the area of former Austro-Hungarian Empire. He wrote approximately 270 scientific papers that were mostly published in the journals of Viennas’s Geological Institute. He contibuted much to the development of geology in the Central Europe and the sciences of geology, geography and botany in Slovakia.