Lama is a local toponym that denotes a wide furrow in the ground typical of the

Murge The Altopiano delle Murge (Italian for "Murge plateau") is a karst topographic plateau of rectangular shape in southern Italy. Most of it lies within Apulia and corresponds with the sub-region known as Murgia or Le Murge. The plateau lies mainl ...

landscape. Lamas convey rainwater from the

plateau to the endpoint of the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

they belong to. Lamas are generally confused with rivers or streams. There is a big difference between lamas and streams, since lamas collect only rainwater of their

, while they are completely dry when there is no rain. Moreover, in lamas water mostly flows underground and just a small amount of the rainwater flows on its surface. As for lamas, surface runoff is greatest in the extreme and uncommon situations of heavy rain. Lamas usually contain fertile soil, that deposited over the millennia due to the erosion and they are usually cultivated. Since they contain fertile soil, they are distinguishable from the nearby typical area of the

plateau, that is almost everywhere stony, arid and hard to grow. Lamas also occur in proximity of such notable dolines as

Pulo di Altamura Pulo di Altamura is a doline located on the Murge plateau ( Apulia, Italy). It is the largest doline in that region and it is located about north-west of the city of Altamura. It shares the local toponym ''pulo'' with other large dolines of the ...

, Gurio Lamanna and Tre Paduli. Those lamas prove that the above dolines originated due to karst processes, that is the double action, both mechanical and chemical, of the rainwater conveyed by the lamas.

Characteristics

Lamas are made up of alluvial soil deposited over the millennia and they are very fertile, in juxtaposition with the fractured limestone rocks typical of the

plateau. For this reason and for the rainwater frequently flowing through the beds of the lamas, they have been inhabited and cultivated since the

Neolithic Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

. The existence of lamas is due to the karst processes of Apulia region and

. The fractured limestone rocks turn out to be highly permeable to rainwater (limestone itself is not particularly permeable, but if heavily fractured, it becomes extremely permeable). The high permeability of the whole region is responsible for the low surface runoff and the higher amount of water flowing underground. Inside lamas, rainwater also flows on its surface, but in a smaller amount. Rainwater flowing underground follows almost the same path as the lama's. This is due to the capillary fringe (

Water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

References

Bibliography

* {{Cite book , first1=Titti , last1=Zezza , first2=Fulvio , last2=Zezza , title=Il carsismo in Puglia , publisher=Adda , year=2000 , place=Italy , isbn=8880823582

External links

* http://www.michelemonno.it/masserie/morfologia.html Geologic formations of Italy Geography of Apulia

Characteristics

See also

References

Bibliography

External links