Snottites, Other Biofilms Hasten Cave Formation

Snottites growing on cave wall.
(Credit: Daniel S. Jones, Penn State)

Biofilms, which are complex layered communities of sulfur-consuming microbes, increase the rate of cave formation, but may also shed light on other biofilms, including those that grow on teeth and those that corrode steel ships hulls, according to a team of geologists.

"Cave biofilms are simpler than the microbes that occur in soils where there can be hundreds of thousands of species," says Dr. Jennifer L. Macalady, assistant professor of geosciences, Penn State. "Some cave biofilms have very few species, 10 to 20. The more complex ones have 100s or 1,000s."

The researchers investigated the Frasassi cave system located north of Rome and south of Venice in Italy. These limestone caves are like New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla

Cave, but in those caves, sulfur entered the caves from oil and gas reserves, while in Italy, the sulfur source is a thick gypsum layer below. Having sulfur in the environment allows these biofilms to grow.

The three open caves of Gypsy Culture in Granada

Roma people outside their caves in Sacromonte .
A vintage postcard issued by the celebrated editors
Stengel & Co., Dresden, before 1905, and sent to
Angers in France in June, 1908. - annotated, "Bon souvenir". 

Spain's first museum of Gysey women opens in Granada

It’s said that people are hostile to what they don’t understand, or in some cases simply what they do not know.

For many it’s the origin of racialism and perhaps over the years it could be the reason why Gypsies have been marginalised in Spain.

Therefore any initiative to help open up the mysteries of the Calé community in Spain must be congratulated. Sometimes the opening up comes from inside the community itself.

At the start of the nineties a group of Gypsy women from Granada formed themselves into an association called Romi. One of their main goals has been to set up a museum to explain the culture of the Gypsey woman, and now that goal has been achieved.

Three caves in the Sacromonte area of Granada now hold the very first museum to ‘La Gitana’ in Spain. Help from the regional government in the form of a 350,000 € grant has set up the centre, and the Mayor of Granada, José Torres Hurtado, has said that he hopes the centre will become a new tourist attraction for the city.

Cave fossils are early Europeans

The bones are said to display modern
and Neanderthal features.

Archaeologists have identified fossils belonging to some of the earliest modern humans to settle in Europe.

The research team has dated six bones found in the Pestera Muierii cave, Romania, to 30,000 years ago.

The finds also raise questions about the possible place of Neanderthals in modern human ancestry.

Details of the discoveries appear in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The human bones were first identified at the Pestera Muierii (Cave of the Old Woman) cave in 1952, but have now been reassessed.

Interesting mix
Only a handful of modern human remains older than 28,000 years old are known from Europe.

Erik Trinkaus from Washington University in St Louis and colleagues obtained radiocarbon dates directly from the fossils and analysed their anatomical form.

The results showed that the fossils were 30,000 years old and had the diagnostic features of modern humans (Homo sapiens).

But Professor Trinkaus and his colleagues argue, controversially, that the bones also display features that were characteristic of our evolutionary cousins, the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis).

The Point Of Icicles

Contemplating some of nature's cool creations is always fun. Now a team of scientists from The University of Arizona in Tucson has figured out the physics of how drips of icy water can swell into the skinny spikes known as icicles.

Deciphering patterns in nature is a specialty of UA researchers Martin B. Short, James C. Baygents and Raymond E. Goldstein. In 2005, the team figured out that stalactites, the formations that hang from the ceilings of caves, have a unique underlying shape described by a strikingly simple mathematical equation.

However, stalactites aren't the only natural formations that look like elongated carrots. Once the researchers had found a mathematical representation of the stalactite's shape, they began to wonder if the solution applied to other similarly shaped natural formations caused by dripping water.

So the team decided to investigate icicles. Although other scientists have studied how icicles grow, they had not found a formula to describe their shape.

Surprisingly, the team found that the same mathematical formula that describes the shape of stalactites also describes the shape of icicles.

Huge wonderland found under Jenolan Caves

Discovering a hidden tunnel that leads to a massive previously unknown cavern is about as good as it gets for a caver.

And when this happens under the nose of millions of tourists at the most trodden-through set of caves in Australia, the Jenolan Caves, it is even more exciting.

Hundreds of metres of spectacular caves have been found by an intrepid team from the Sydney University Speleological Society, the first significant find at the cave system for almost 40 years.

They are hard to reach, but worth the uncomfortable journey. Purple-tinged flowstones and rare red-coloured stalactites and stalagmites paint a vivid underground portrait.

The floors are covered with light-reflecting crystals. Unusually patterned bands of gravity-defying helictites line the walls.

Intricate multi-tiered domes and crystallised streams also form part of the newly discovered network, which is too difficult to access to form part of a future tourist track.

Older Neanderthal man in Gibraltar

New findings have been published in Nature magazine

An international team of scientists, most of them Spanish, have discovered evidence of Neanderthal man in Gibraltar.

The find, in the Gorham cave on the rock, would seem to indicate a more modern Neanderthal man was living in the area than previously thought – from the time between 32,000 and 24,000 years ago.

Gibraltar biologist Clive Finlayson has been explaining the find to Nature magazine.

Australian Geologists Date World's Oldest Discovered Open Caves At 340 Million Years

The Persian Chamber in the Orient Cave: research
has dated Jenolan Caves at 340 million years old.

Cave-dating research published by Australian geologists has found that the Jenolan Caves, in central NSW, are the world's oldest discovered open caves.

In a study published in the June issue of the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences (Vol. 53, 377-405), scientists from CSIRO, the University of Sydney and the Australian Museum -- in cooperation with the Jenolan Caves Trust -- have shown that the limestone caves, which attract thousands of tourists each year, date back more than 340 million years.

Until 20 years ago most scientists thought the Jenolan Caves were no more than a few thousand years old. In 1999 geologists estimated that the caves might be between 90 and 100 million years old.

Dr Armstrong Osborne, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, has long suspected that the caves are older than had been widely recognised, but says he was surprised to find they dated back to the Carboniferous (290 to 354 million years ago).

"We've shown that these caves are hundreds of millions of years older than any reported date for an open cave anywhere in the world," Dr Osborne says.

"Even in geological terms, 340 million years is a very long time. To put it into context, the Blue Mountains began to form 100 million years ago; dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, and Tasmania was joined to the mainland as recently as 10,000 years ago.

15th International Congress of Speleology website

The 15th International Congress of Speleology will be held in Kerrville, Texas, USA on 19-26 July 2009. Since it is never too early to begin preparing for a great event, the website for the Congress is now available
with all of the latest information so you can start planning to attend. The goal of the website is to stay so up to date that if you don't find the information you need there, then it is likely that the information is not yet available (although you're always welcome to contact us and check).

The website is in English. Our summary leaflet is available as PDFs in French, German, and Spanish. The leaflet is currently being translated into Italian and will be posted as soon as it is ready. Later this summer,
print-quality versions of the leaflets will be available on the web too. By the end of September, the entire website will be available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

We encourage you to visit the website and bookmark it for future reference: www.ics2009.us

If you want to be certain you receive all updates on the Congress or are interested in helping, contact us at secretary@ics2009.us

We look forward to seeing you in Kerrville in 2009!

George Veni
Chairman, 15th International Congress of Speleology
Adjunct Secretary, International Union of Speleology

International Conference on Karst Hydrogeology and Ecosystems

The International Conference on Karst Hydrogeology and Ecosystems (Karst 2007) will be held August 13-19, 2007 at Western Kentucky University. 

Sponsored by Western Kentucky University, the Patel Center for Global Solutions, the Karst Waters Institute, and the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning, and hosted by the WKU Hoffman Environmental Research Institute, this conference is a joint meeting of the four major international karst research groups: 

1) the UNESCO International Geoscience Program (IGCP) Project 513: Global Study of Karst Aquifers and Water Resources; 

2) The International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) Karst Commission; 

3) the International Geographical Union (IGU) Karst Commission, and 

4) the Union Internationale de Spéléologie Commission on Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis. 

This follows two successful similar meetings held at WKU in 1998 and 2003. We expect a more diverse turnout due to the increased international participation in these projects over the last few years--IGCP Project 513 alone now has over 300 members representing 56 countries. 

The conference website can be found at http://hoffman.wku.edu/karst2007/k2007.html, or easily accessed from the Hoffman Institute site. 

During the conference, in collaboration with the Patel Center for Global Solutions, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, the University of South Florida Libraries, the University of New Mexico Libraries, and the University of South Florida Karst Research Group, there will be a plenary session to facilitate international evolution of the emerging Karst Information Portal Initiative.

Please note that limited funding will be made available from IGCP513 for financial conference support (i.e. registration costs, visa application fees, etc.), focusing on scientists from countries where travel funds are more difficult to obtain. We will also provide partial scholarships for students, in return for assisting conference organizers during the meeting. 

 
For additional information, or to be added to the conference email list, please contact IGCP513 Secretary Beth Medley at karst2007@gmail.com.

Group and Grotto Conservation Awards

Group and Grotto Conservation Awards are presented by the NSS Cave Conservation and Management Section.

These awards are given annually to an NSS group and an NSS grotto that do the most for cave conservation and management. Each award recipient gets a check for $100 and a certificate. Each award consists of a plaque with the names of all past recipients engraved on it.

As of today, 17 May 2005, no nominations have been received for the group award and one nomination for the grotto award. Award nominations often arrive near the deadline; however, the chances that your group could be recognized at the NSS convention this year may be good, provided that the group is nominated.

This notice and internet link should be published in cave publications and sent to all cave site web masters to be placed on their websites. Please help get the word out about the Group and the Grotto Cave Conservation Awards.

This link http://www.acave.us/ccms/index.html

goes to the Conservation Section Website. Once you are there, click on "Enter." The heading "Conservation Award" is listed in the blue navigation bar. It has eight pages of information about all aspects of these awards including a nomination form. 

Vulcanospeleology Symposium in Mexico

The Twelfth International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology will be held in Tepoztlán, Mexico, just south of Mexico City, July 3-8.

The Association for Mexican Cave Studies is helping sponsor this event; it will publish the proceedings as an AMCS Bulletin and provide copies to the registrants after the event (sometime this fall). Further information is at www.saudicaves.com/symp06.

I have just sent to the printer an AMCS Bulletin on lava tubes in the area of the symposium. The author is Ramón Espinasa, co-chairman of the symposium. The publication is a joint one with the Sociedad Mexicana de
Exploraciones Subterráneas and will be for sale at the symposium. If you are driving from the U.S. down to the symposium and can take a couple of boxes of books with you, please contact me and I'll have the printer ship some directly to you.

-- Bill Mixon, AMCS Editor
editor@amcs-pubs.org or bmixon@alumni.uchicago.edu

Biospeleology website has moved

Please note:  Biospeleology has moved to... http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_sites/biospeleology/

Please come visit the updated website with new photos of cave biologists doing field work, new bibliographies and new links. 

Two new books

Please find below details of two new speleological books.

• Essential sources in Cave Science
• Subterranean fishes of the world

Essential sources in Cave Science.

British Cave Research Association Cave Studies series no. 16. (2006). Edited by Graham S. Proudlove. This book contains 15 chapters covering all of the disciplines within cave science. Each chapter (see below) contains an introduction to the discipline and then a list of literature sources which provide up to date information on the breadth and depth of the subject. A third section contains links to internet based (web
and listserv) resources. The book is aimed at three audiences, the novice who needs to read up on a discipline, the researcher who wants to expand out of their normal field (e.g. for interdisciplinary research), and the ordinary caver who is curious to learn more. 

Each chapter is written by a recognised authority and all chapters were peer-reviewed by at least two world class reviewers. This is the first colection of its type to reach publication.

Chapters
1. Introduction
2. Geology - Dave Lowe
3. Geomorphology - Tony Waltham
4. Hydrology + Hydrogeology - Chris Groves
5. Chemistry - Simon Bottrell
6. Physics - David Gibson, Clark Friend, Phil Murphy
7. Speleogenesis - Dave Lowe
8. Minerals and Speleothems - Charlie Self
9. Palaeoenvironments - Andy Baker
10. Biology - Graham Proudlove
11. Bats - John Altringham
12. Archaeology and Palaeontology - Andrew Chamberlain
13. Conservation and Management - Graham Price
14. Speleology - Ric halliwell
15. Periodicals - Graham Proudlove

See bcra.org.uk/pub/cs/index.html for details. Price 4.50 GB pounds (8 US dollars, 6.5 Euro). Available from BCRA sales and from Speleobooks.com

---

Subterranean fishes of the world. A monograph of the subterranean (hypogean) fishes described 1842 - 2003 with a bibliography 1541 - 2005.
Graham S. Proudlove (2006). 304 pages, 87 black and white Figures and 20 colour plates.

Currently in press and due in July 2006.

The first comprehensive account of the subterranean fishes of the world since 1969. Provides accounts for 104 species and with a bibliography covering all publications on subterranean fishes (more than 2000 entries). With an extensive "Note added in proof" which adds 21 further species and 50 further references (including 2006 publications).

Published by the International Society for Subterranean Biology.

Available from Speleobooks.com and other outlets.

It will be helpful if anyone interested in purchasing this book could contact me in advanvce so that we can determine demand. Please mail me at g.proudlove@manchester.ac.uk

Alpine Karst 2006---Table of Contents


Greetings:

 

Release date for the next Alpine Karst publication is late spring 2006.
  

 

You can preview the Table of Contents by clicking on:

 

http://www.alpinekarst.org/2006_Alpine_Karst_TOC.pdf

 

Cheers,

 

Joe Oliphant

Texas Cave Conservancy Educational Show Cave

The Texas Cave Conservancy  (TCC) announces acqusition of Avery Ranch Cave, located near Round Rock, Texas.

On March 6, 2006 the Avery Ranch Homeowner's Association transferred ownership of this small, one room cave to the TCC.  The Conservancy will be developing this site as an educational show cave, available to cavers and members of the public at no charge.  It will become a valuable tool  in the TCC's cave related public education efforts.

Background
On May 2, 2001 contractors, excavating a one meter wide trench for a sewer line at Avery Ranch inWilliamson County, cut into the side of a small, highly decorated cave.  Caver Kimble White was
summoned to check out the cave.  He found a room twenty five to thirty feet in diameter, up to eighteen feet high and filled with formations.

The following is Kimble's account of what occurred next: "It was hit during trenching of a sewer line on May 2, 2001. I was the first to enter and explore it that evening. Hub Bechtol, Brad Sappington, and Kristin White returned with me the next morning and helped  map it. We took clean shoes into the cave with us and changed into them after making it past the muddy trench...we used a long piece of bamboo to place the end of the tape at various locations for our survey shots so as not to have to climb on the speleothems.  To their
credit the developer re-designed the sewer trench and the road it followed to avoid the cave. They gave up three lots on top to protect the cave and had the hatch installed on top to keep the speleothems from drying out. Others who entered the cave in that first week were Sylvia Pope and some others from COA, and  Heather Beatty from TCEQ.

Mike Warton came out later when I recommended him to the owners for installing the hatch.  An interesting anecdote: While Sue Hovorka (Edwards Aquifer expert with!  the UT Bureau of Economic Geology) was rewriting the TCEQ guidelines for conducting Geologic Assessments in the recharge zone, we took her to a
couple of our field sites to help her with some ground level input on the methods involved. We probably walked right over this cave in the process of inspecting several of the previously identified CEFs that
are nearby...no sign of it at the surface whatsoever.  It's also interesting to note that we are very lucky that the trench intersected the cave where it did. Had it done anything else but just knick the cave then it may not have been salvagable, not to mention the fact that the trencher could have taken a serious fall."

Since there was no observable cave life, Avery Ranch Cave became a potential site for an educational show cave.  While the TCC is purchasing three endangered species caves on the 4.25 acres at the TCC Headquarters site, this is the first cave to be owned outright by the conservation organization.  Over the next three months, the TCC will install an observation deck inside the cave and make additional improvements.  Your support with this effort and others is invited.

Cace day
Don't forget, Saturday, April 15, 2006, the Texas Cave Conservancy will host a public event, "CAVE DAY", in Cedar Park, Texas.  Come on out and help.  You will even get to see the latest TCC
cave acquisition.  For more information contact me.

Donna Mosesmann
TCC Director
713-777-7339
dogmos1@hotmail.com

SPELEOFEST 2006

SPELEOFEST 2006 

Hart County Fairground , 

May 25-29

Gates will be open Thursday from Noon till Midnight

$ 2.00 per person for early arrival camping for Thursday night

Gates will reopen Friday morning at 6:00AM and remain open till Noon on Sunday.

You can get more information and directions at the Louisville Grotto Web Site

Speleofest 2006 Chairperson
Shelly Wolf
NSS #44482
cavewolf@hotmail.com


Update:
Check out the photo gallery.

Save Planinsko Polje

Dear colleagues and friends,
Some of you might never have heard of Planinsko polje in Slovenia, some of you might have read about it and some of you might have seen it, even if only once. If you have heard of it, or seen it, you will know that, arguably, it is the best-preserved example of a large karst polje in the Dinaric Karst region of Europe. 

During the past year or so, an apparently highly aggressive international consortium has been pressing ahead with plans to erect a monstrosity of a building that will form a blot on the pristine landscape at the most environmentally sensitive point in the entire polje. 

This juggernaut venture is steaming forward as part of the seemingly innocent aspiration of providing a European Museum of Karst. Whereas provision of such a museum can only be seen as an exciting and worthwhile prospect, the potential effects on the polje's landscape and ecology really are unjustifiable, doubly so as a more environmentally acceptable and economically viable location for the planned complex could readily be found elsewhere within the Slovenian karst.

The Speleological Society of Ljubljana has launched a campaign that will attempt to gain statutory protection for Planinsko polje and its close neighbourhood, from this and from any future such initiatives. 

We would feel much stronger if we could demonstrate international concern about the issue, and attract the support of cavers, speleologists and all like-minded people who value and wish to preserve the natural environment. 

If you are interested in helping us, please, click http://emk.speleo.net and follow the instructions provided to register your support. 

Furthermore, it would be even more helpful if you can take the time to forward this message to any individuals or organizations that you suppose might be willing to add their support and encouragement to our cause. 

Thank you in advance! 

On behalf of the Speleological Society of Ljubljana, 

Yours sincerely, 

France Sustersic

Upcoming Cave Rescue Seminar in Colorado

April 22nd-23rd, the Colorado Cave Rescue Network will be presenting a seminar in basic cave rescue techniques. Details are available at: http://www.coloradocaverescue2006.org

As the number of participants is limited and we only have a few spots left, please e-mail me as soon as possible if you are interested in attending.

skiandcave@ureach.com

Hidden Earth 2006

The UK's National Caving Conference and Exhibition Hidden Earth 2006 is on 22-24 September at Leek High School, Staffordshire.

Leek is a market town about 12 miles south of the spa town of Buxton, which is at the heart of the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire.

Information about the event will be posted at http://hidden-earth.org.uk/ in due course.

The Hidden Earth team apologises for the delay in fixing the date and location. A venue was, in fact, booked last autumn but due to unforeseen difficulties we had to find a new venue at short notice.

Call For Papers - PseudoKarst Symposium

Please submit your abstracts by May 1, 2006 for the Pseudokarst 2006 Symposium at the 2006 NSS Convention in Bellingham, Washington.

The abstract should be 250 words or less and contain the authors complete contact address.

Your current telephone number should also be included, but will not be published.

Electronic submission as a MS Word or PDF file as an email attachment is preferred, but paper submissions to the following address will also be accepted.

Steve Stokowski
NSS #14425FE
508-881-6364

mail to:
S. Stokowski
1058 Sodom Rd.
Westport, Mass. 02790

Safety and Techniques Committee Chair Needed

The Education Division, under the Department of the Administrative Vice-President, is looking for a motivated and effective chairperson for the Safety and Techniques Committee.

The new chair will organize a committee focused on educating the NSS membership on proper and safe caving practices and informing us of new techniques. The committee chair will also work with the Education Division Chief and other committee chairs on collaborative efforts within the Division. Recommendations on equipment and educational material are passed on to the NSS membership through the STC column in the NSS News and through workshops at the NSS Convention.

Please consider volunteering to work for the goals of the Education Division of the NSS. For more information on these committees or to apply, please send questions or a vision statement and resume to Amy Bern (amybern@juno.com), Education Division Chief.

Volunteers for Youth Groups Cave Projects

The NSS Youth Groups Liaison Committee (YGLC) (Education Division, Department of the Administrative Vice President) is seeking volunteers to fill several committee and sub-committee positions.  If you're interested in helping youth learn about the importance of caves and karst, please go to the NSS YGLC Website's index page from www.caves.org/youth/ and click on the "To Join the YGLC" button to learn about committee goals, positions, responsibilities, and application process.

Some positions require very few responsibilities and a small time-commitment, while others require high skill-levels in project management, writing, and communication, as well a considerable time-commitment.  All positions require people skills, Internet access, and a desire to improve access to information on topics concerning youth groups and caving for grottos, cavers, and youth groups.

No positions require working directly with youth, but all positions will have a major impact on meeting the conservation, safety, and education goals of the NSS.  Please check out the positions and see where your skills would fit in the structure of the YGL committee.

Subcontinent’s longest cave found in Meghalaya

An international team of experts has discovered the longest cave system of the subcontinent in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills, surpassing the record of the previously known one by almost a km in the same district.

“The linking of the Krem Um Im-Liat Prah limestone cave system to Krem Labbit (Khaidong) to create a single cave system of 22 km in length is the longest cave known to date in the subcontinent,” the team members said at a news conference today.

This finding surpasses the previous record of the longest cave system in the subcontinent ? the Kotsati-Umlawam in Lumshnong measuring 21.56 km, said B.D. Kharpran Dally, a reputed speleologist in Meghalaya.

The 28-member team, comprising 17 members from the UK, two each from Switzerland and Denmark, one each from Austria and Ireland and five from India, spent three-and-a-half weeks in the district focussing on the cave areas of Shnongrim ridge near the Nongkhlieh area.

The experts explored 39 caves between February 7 and March 1, mapped and photographed them to discover 15,498 metres of new cave passages.

BCRA Cave Science Symposium Saturday 4th March Bristol UK

Location is the School of Geographical Sciences http://www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/, University Road, University of Bristol, BRISTOL, BS8 1SS, UK. Start Time: door open 9:30, start 10:00, finish at 16:30.

Further information (maps, parking, travel, etc.): see www.bcra.org.uk/#events

Admission charges (payable on door) will be £5 (BCRA members £4, undergraduate students £3). This charge includes tea/coffee in the morning and afternoon. The cost of lunch is not included but there are suitable venues within walking distance of the venue.

For information about the venue, including accommodation, please contact Dr Phil Hopley, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1SS. +44 117 928 9111. Phil.Hopley[at]bristol.ac.uk

Presentations

• Peter L. Smart, Patricia A. Beddows, Jim Coke, Stefan Doerr, Samantha Smith and Fiona F. Whitaker Cave Development on the Caribbean Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico
• Andrew Farrant Swildons Hole: a centenary reappraisal
• Peter Smithers The Diet of the Cave Spider Meta menardi (Latreille 1804), (Araneae-Tetragnathidae).
• Alison Blyth Vegetational and microbial ecosystem signals as preserved in stalagmites from Scotland and Ethiopia
• Stephanie Leach, Martin Smith and Megan Brickley A Shot in the Dark. Identification of a fatal projectile injury in the skeletal remains of a young woman excavated from Feizor Nick Cave, North Yorkshire
• Gina Moseley, Peter L. Smart and David A. Richards Quaternary Sea Level and Palaeoclimate from Submerged Speleothems 
• Ian Fairchild, Claire Smith, Andy Baker, Lisa Fuller, Emily McMillan, Christoph Spötl, Dave Mattey, Frank McDermott, Silvia Frisia, Andrea Borsato Karstic systems and the preservation of palaeoenvironmental signals by speleothems
• Simon Bottrell Tracing the impact of mine drainage pollution in a karst aquifer, Xingwen, China
• Sam Allshorn Rapid karstic by-pass flow in the unsaturated zone of the Chalk and implications for contaminant transport. 
• Trevor Faulkner Relationships between cave dimensions and local catchment areas
• John Gunn The Roosky turloughs, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
• Stephanie Leach In Sickness and in Health: Earlier Neolithic human mortuary activities in Yorkshire caves and rock shelters
• Julia Lee-Thorp Interpretation of isotope proxies and variability in a mid-latitude savanna: the Cold Air Cave stalagmites, Makapans Valley, South Africa.

Auriga 1.0 soon

Version 1.0 of the Auriga cave survey freeware for PalmOS handheld computers is approaching soon. Some minor bugs are still reported once in a while, mostly from testing done by Chris Chénier - author of the

Compass and VisualTopo exchange conduits - and myself, but very few from the field, other than congratulations. I wish to launch a bug hunt so as to quickly publish version 1.0 before the Summer expeditions. I thus ask users to report with as much details as possible any error they may encounter.

http://www.speleo.qc.ca/Auriga

Two Hungarians die in avalanche in Italy

Two Hungarian speleologists died in an avalanche in Mount Bila Pec in northern Italy as they explored a cave, the ANSA news agency reported.

The two – a man and a woman – were found dead today. A third, who was with the victims when they were hit by the avalanche, was reported safe, the Alpine rescue service in north-eastern Italy said.

The three had been the first in the group to leave the cave. They were hit first by a minor avalanche yesterday morning on Mount Bila Pec, near Udine. They managed to free themselves from the snow, but were struck by another avalanche two hours later as they descended from the mountain, rescuers said.

Heavy snowfall was complicating efforts to rescue the remaining seven, rescue teams said, but added that the seven did not appear to be in immediate danger as long as they remained inside the cave.

Italian civil protection officials then discovered the bodies of the two Hungarians, one man and one woman, the agency said.

The seven others were still trapped in the Bila Pec cave.

Update:

Two Hungarian speleologists, a man and a woman died in the north Italian Julia-Alps region, while a third, reported missing earlier, escaped an accident unharmed, the rescue services told Italia ADNKronos news agency on Tuesday.

Hungarian Consul in Milan, Miklos Karpati confirmed to MTI the death of the two speleologists.

A group of ten Hungarian speleologists disappeared at the Sella-Nevea pass in the Canin mountain region on Monday. Three of them reported over mobile phone that due to an avalanche rolling close, seven of their colleagues got stuck in a cave but they were not in direct danger, the agency said.

The search and rescue operations for the ten speleologists by the Friuli-Venezia (Venice)-Giulia region mountain rescue services and a helicopter continued on Tuesday. Heavy snow and bad weather in the region seriously hindered the rescue operations on Tuesday morning.

Rescuers had the last contact with the speleologists outside the cave at 1530 local time on Monday, but contact with them was then lost as their mobiles went dead.

The ten speleologists were participating in a several days long cave tour in the 1750-metre-high Canin mountain. Three of them left the cave they toured on Monday afternoon to go to another one called Cave del Predil. An avalanche rolling down when they left the cave dumped the three in a 3-metre-deep snow. One of the three managed to free himself and alert the rescue services, ADNKronos said, and added that the survivor was in good physical condition.

Meanwhile, rescue operations for the seven Hungarians, who were advised to stay inside the cave, is going on, Italian sources said

Spring VAR info--revised to include kids' prices

Grand Caverns, Grottoes, Virginia

April 28-30, 2006

Price
Pre-registration price (must be postmarked by April 12): $25; kids 4-14 $20
On-site price: $27; kids 4-14 $22 (kids under 4 admitted free)

Cave Trips
There will be a variety of cave trips offered, both led and self-guided.

A kids'rsquo trip to Fountain Cave is planned.

Trips to less demanding caves such as Church Mountain, Linville Quarry, and Island Ford Caves will also be available.

Other more challenging cave trips will be 3-D Maze, Lyles Pit, Glade Cave (one of the muddiest caves in Virginia), and Cave Spring Cave (which has a most spectacular wall of flowstone called "Buttermilk Falls").

A trip! into Crozet Tunnel (an old railroad tunnel) is planned.

In addition to guided trips into Grand Caverns (not the new section!), you will be able to explore the hillside above Grand Caverns and check out many of the "new discoveries" on Cave Hill.

Friday Night
Music by John Fox

Saturday Night Menu 

Chicken Bake
Meatloaf
Salad with assorted dressings
Mashed potatoes
Macaroni & cheese
California blend veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots)
Corn
Rolls & butter
Brownies, Banana Cake, Carrot Cake, Cheese Cake, Cookies
Tea, Lemonade

Saturday Night Program
Grand Caverns Video by Dave Socky
Talk on Cave Hill by Jim McConkey
Photos of the "New Section" from various contributors
More music by John Fox

Other Attractions
Speleovendors and the Guillotine Trough Squeeze Box will be on-site.

Registration Form
Make checks out to D.C. Grotto and mail to Carol Tiderman, 7600 Pindell School Road, Fulton, MD
 20759-9725

Be sure to PRINT neatly so that you will get your Region Record in the mail.

Book Review: Wind Cave by John Eric Ellison

WIND CAVE
(2003) by John Eric Ellison
PublishAmerica, Baltimore
Paperback, 211 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 format.
ISBN: 1-4137-0407-7
$19.95 retail
$16.95 direct from PublishAmerica.com

On Saturday, June 14, 1969, John Ellison, age 13, and his stepfather were exploring Wind Cave, a segment of the Arnold Lava Tube System in Bend, Oregon. Shortly after entering the cave, John had a sudden, overwhelming feeling of dread and a premonition that something was terribly wrong.

John convinced his stepfather to leave the cave as quickly as possible. About a half hour later, two other men in the cave discovered the badly decomposed body of Mrs. Beverly Gayley. The body was wrapped in bedding and hastily buried under rocks near the entrance. She had an electrical cord around her neck and severe head trauma. Gayley, age 54, had been reported missing from her home since mid-April. An autopsy reported her death was due to "combined acts of violence." For young John Ellison, the memories of that trip and the ensuing murder investigation would have a profound effect on him for years to come. So profound in fact that as an adult, "the need to purge his soul of disturbing memories" would inspire him to write Wind Cave.

In Wind Cave, Ellison (NSS# 50750) has relived the events of his youth through the eyes of Ronny Hazelwood and his young companions. When a woman's body is found in Wind Cave, the kids begin their own murder investigation and unintentionally get caught between supernatural forces of good and evil, culminating deep underground where the known laws of nature seem to have disappeared. It is the perfect book to read aloud the next time you find yourself trapped underground with a bunch of scouts.

Anyone wishing to explore Wind Cave after reading this book should be reminded that the murderer of Beverly Gayley was never found. And you know what they say: the guilty always return to the scene of the crime.

Call for 2007 Calendar Photos

Speleo Projects is now accepting submissions of quality caving photographs for publication in our 2007 Caving Calendar, and possibly other publications.

**** DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: MARCH 15, 2006 ****

Guidelines and a submission form may be downloaded from our web page, http://www.speleoprojects.com

For more information or questions, please contact me at sue@speleoprojects.com

Caves of California Parks Yield Tiny Discoveries

The Crystal Cave millipede on roots in the Rapunzels Canyon
section of the cave. This animal is very likely a new
species from the Striariidae family.

Sequoia National Park in California may be famous for its massive trees, but some very tiny creatures that live there are also making news. Biologists have discovered new species of spiders, millipedes, and other critters deep in the underground caves of the park.

So far, reports Sasha Khokha of member station KQED, scientists have discovered 27 new species in caves throughout Central California, at Sequoia and at Kings Canyon National Park. They found creatures so tiny they couldn't pick them up with tweezers. Some had to be collected on the delicate ends of a paintbrush.

The spiders and centipedes were pickled and shipped off to taxonomists all around the world. The experts have confirmed that while these little creatures may be close to relatives above ground, they've adapted into completely different species. Now, the next task is to give all of them names.

This new species of pseudoscorpion lives in Walk Softly Cave, which also contains a bat colony. These eye-less animals are predators that hunt in the complete darkness of the cave.

World's longest salt cave

Expedition news:
A team of Czech cavers have extended Tri Nahacu Cave to over 6 km, making it the world's
longest cave formed in salt!  It has exceeded the  former longest salt cave - Malham in Israel - 5685 m.

The cave is located  in Iran - island Queshm in Hormus - the name means "Cave of three nudes" often abbreviated to 3N-cave, as the first explorers were naked the first time they explored the cave as there is a large and deep salty lake at entrance. The Czechs were able to  connect The Big ponor cave to the 3N cave.

The expedition will return to the Czech Republic on 9 February.

Source: Pavel Bosak, Prague

Details: http://aktualne.centrum.cz/domaci/zajimavosti-a-veda/clanek.phtml?id=53343

Click below for more images and a survey of the 3N cave system in Iran.

Book: Underworld by Catherine MacPhail

Underworld by Catherine MacPhail

Product Details:
ISBN: 1582349975
Format: Hardcover, 284pp
Pub. Date: July 2005
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 250,925
Age Range: 5 to 12

FROM THE PUBLISHER
A school trip goes disastrously wrong when five troubled high school students find themselves trapped in an underground cave. Their best chance of escape is to stay together. But when a member of the group disappears, their hope of finding a way out starts to fade. Does one of the remaining four know more than he or she is letting on, or is there something evil lurking in the caves?

FROM THE CRITICS
With its breathtaking hills and crashing waves, the remote Scottish island is hauntingly beautiful. To five social outcasts, however, it is their worst nightmare. In hopes of reforming these teenagers, their school administration has handpicked them to participate in an educational two-week trip to the island. For the reluctant crew, it promises to be a miserable time for all. But even Axel, arguably the most troubled of the group, could not have foreseen the disaster waiting to befall them. The night before a caving expedition, the gravelly cook regales them with the Legend of the Great Worm that roams the dark tunnels. Although they laugh at her, there is an undercurrent of fear at her words. When the outing ends abruptly with a rockslide that traps the teens in the tunnels with their teacher gravely injured, their bravado crumbles. Bickering escalates into fighting, and the group splits into two factions. Now they must not only battle the unknown dangers of the underground, but they must also face secret fears within themselves.

Suspenseful and mysterious, this tale of making choices and survival will fascinate young adult readers. Although set in Scotland, the archetypal characters-bully, liar, punk, prankster, and showoff-are universal and well developed. Although the ending is a bit anticlimactic, it retains enough adventurous flavor to keep one guessing as to what is real and what is only a figment of imagination. Fans of mystery with a blend of
unreality will enjoy this quick read.

Available from Amazon.