Dear Caving Friends,
The Cave Protection Commission (ECPC) of the European Federation (FSE) organises a wide consultation of every European caver in order to build the European Charta of reference for Cave and Karst Protection. It has been brepared by the 30 members of the ECPC coming from more than 15 European countries, under the supervision of the ECPC President ad interim, Ioana Meleg. For the other countries (cf. list in post-scriptum) or for already participating countries, if you are motivated to contribute to the ECPC work or simply receive the information of the commission, please send an email with your data to protection@eurospeleo.org
This charta is made for the European cavers and general public. It is not made to replace the International Guidelines for Cave and Karst Protection (65 pages) full document (3.5Mo) available on IUCN.
It is neither made to replace the national charta your federation might have, but rather to harmonise the existing national documents that all go in the same direction.
The aim is to get a short document in 10 points that fits in a half page and that all cavers can understand and make it their own.
So you can find here attached a version that is submitted to your remarks and observations. The file is also available on Eurospeleo.
You can make suggestions directly in the file, that is in correction mode, either on the content or on the used words.
Please send your remarks and modified files out of mailing-lists to protection@eurospeleo.org before the 18th of December 2009,
Thank you for your participation,
Best speleological regards,
Olivier Vidal
Secr. General FSE
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Man dies after 28 hours stuck in cave
A US medical student has died after being stuck upside-down in a cave in Utah for more than 24 hours, officials said overnight.
John Jones, 26, was part of a group of 11 experienced cavers who set out to explore the Nutty Putty caves, around 100km south of Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah.
Nearly three hours after the group had entered the caves on Tuesday evening, Mr Jones became stuck in a feature inside Nutty Putty, known as Bob's Push, the Utah County sheriff's office said.
"This feature is very tightly confined, being about 45cm wide and 25cm high,'' the sheriff's office said.
"Jones was positioned with his head downhill and was unable to move further into the cave. He was also unable to move back up the Bob's Push area."
Nearly 100 rescuers using large amounts of technical and heavy rescue equipment worked around the clock to try to free Mr Jones, who was trapped 46m underground and 213m from the entrance of the cave.
At one point they freed Mr Jones, but a rope and pulley system failed and he became stuck a second time.
Jones's brother, Spencer Jones, said: "We all were very optimistic and hopeful. But it became increasingly clear last night after he got re-stuck that there weren't very many options left.
"We thought he was in the clear and then when we got the news that he had slipped again. That's when we started to get scared."
Mr Jones lost consciousness late Wednesday, 28 hours after being stuck in the cave. Crews are still trying to remove his body.
His death is the first known fatality at the cave, according to the sheriff's office. Nutty Putty is now closed until a decision can be made about its future.
Spencer Jones said the family of five boys and two girls was close, and his brother was a wonderful person.
"He would have done anything for you, so that's what makes it even harder. It's senseless," he said.
Mr Jones leaves behind a wife and 8-month-old daughter.
John Jones, 26, was part of a group of 11 experienced cavers who set out to explore the Nutty Putty caves, around 100km south of Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah.
Nearly three hours after the group had entered the caves on Tuesday evening, Mr Jones became stuck in a feature inside Nutty Putty, known as Bob's Push, the Utah County sheriff's office said.
"This feature is very tightly confined, being about 45cm wide and 25cm high,'' the sheriff's office said.
"Jones was positioned with his head downhill and was unable to move further into the cave. He was also unable to move back up the Bob's Push area."
Nearly 100 rescuers using large amounts of technical and heavy rescue equipment worked around the clock to try to free Mr Jones, who was trapped 46m underground and 213m from the entrance of the cave.
At one point they freed Mr Jones, but a rope and pulley system failed and he became stuck a second time.
Jones's brother, Spencer Jones, said: "We all were very optimistic and hopeful. But it became increasingly clear last night after he got re-stuck that there weren't very many options left.
"We thought he was in the clear and then when we got the news that he had slipped again. That's when we started to get scared."
Mr Jones lost consciousness late Wednesday, 28 hours after being stuck in the cave. Crews are still trying to remove his body.
His death is the first known fatality at the cave, according to the sheriff's office. Nutty Putty is now closed until a decision can be made about its future.
Spencer Jones said the family of five boys and two girls was close, and his brother was a wonderful person.
"He would have done anything for you, so that's what makes it even harder. It's senseless," he said.
Mr Jones leaves behind a wife and 8-month-old daughter.
Source: Adelaide Now
Utah explorer dies in cave
A man stuck upside-down in a cave for more than a day died early Thursday, despite the efforts of dozens of rescuers, authorities said.
John Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park died about 12:30 a.m., nearly 28 hours after he became stuck 700 feet into the cave known as Nutty Putty, Utah County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.
Rescuers were next to Jones for much of the day but he was wedged in a small hole too tightly to pull him out or even reach through to assist him, Cannon told The Associated Press.
"They were right there with him, checking his vital signs," Cannon said. "They were able to get close enough to verify that he was deceased."
Source: Orlando Sentinel
John Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park died about 12:30 a.m., nearly 28 hours after he became stuck 700 feet into the cave known as Nutty Putty, Utah County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.
Rescuers were next to Jones for much of the day but he was wedged in a small hole too tightly to pull him out or even reach through to assist him, Cannon told The Associated Press.
"They were right there with him, checking his vital signs," Cannon said. "They were able to get close enough to verify that he was deceased."
Source: Orlando Sentinel
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
To the Bat Cave: Researchers Reconstruct Evolution of Bat Migration With Aid of Mathematical Model
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| Evening or vesper bat (Vespertillo murinus). Credit: Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell |
Not just birds, but also a few species of bats face a long journey every year. Researchers at Princeton University in the U.S. and at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany studied the migratory behaviour of the largest extant family of bats, theVespertilionidae with the help of mathematical models. They discovered that the migration over short as well as long distances of various kinds of bats evolved independently within the family.
Most people know the term of "migrating bird" but "migrating bat" is not very established. However, some bat species migrate every year long or short distances. Whereas birds migrate to exploit seasonal food resources, the majority of bats migrate with the intention to find better hibernating conditions.
Most people know the term of "migrating bird" but "migrating bat" is not very established. However, some bat species migrate every year long or short distances. Whereas birds migrate to exploit seasonal food resources, the majority of bats migrate with the intention to find better hibernating conditions.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
"Shangri-La" Caves Yield Treasures, Skeletons
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| Climber Renan Ozturk watches a local Tibetan look at an illuminated manuscript found in 2008 in a cave in the ancient kingdom of Mustang—today part of Nepal. |
The 15th-century religious texts and wall paintings were found in caves carved into sheer cliffs in the ancient kingdom of Mustang—today part of Nepal. (See pictures of the "Shangri-La" caves and their treasures.)
Few have been able to explore the mysterious caves, since Upper Mustang is a restricted area of Nepal that was long closed to outsiders. Today only a thousand foreigners a year are allowed into the region.
In 2007 a team co-led by U.S. researcher and Himalaya expert Broughton Coburn and veteran mountaineer Pete Athans scaled the crumbling cliffs on a mission to explore the human-made caves.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Cave study links climate change to California droughts
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| A cut in half stalagmite from McLean's Cave (California) Photo: Isabel Montañez |
California experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic, according to a new study by UC Davis doctoral student Jessica Oster and geology professor Isabel Montañez.
The finding, which comes from analyzing stalagmites from Moaning Cavern in the central Sierra Nevada, was published online Nov. 5 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
The sometimes spectacular mineral formations in caves such as Moaning Cavern and Black Chasm build up over centuries as water drips from the cave roof. Those drops of water pick up trace chemicals in their path through air, soil and rocks, and deposit the chemicals in the stalagmite.
"They're like tree rings made out of rock," Montañez said. "These are the only climate records of this type for California for this period when past global warming was occurring."
At the end of the last ice age about 15,000 years ago, climate records from Greenland show a warm period called the Bolling-Allerod period. Oster and Montanez's results show that at the same time, California became much drier. Episodes of relative cooling in the Arctic records, including the Younger Dryas period 13,000 years ago, were accompanied by wetter periods in California.
Cave rescuers' grants enable HQ refit
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| Members of the CRO receive the cheque from the Freemasons |
The Cave Rescue Organisation is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its formation in the Yorkshire Dales and its headquarters have been completely redesigned to enable it to operate more efficiently. The latest grant, from Freemasons in the area, added to the £80,000 already raised for the project at its Clapham base.
A cheque was handed over by members of the Wenning Lodge at Bentham, as part of a larger handout from lodges throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire, which used to include much of the Dales before its disappearance from the maps in 1974.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Exley: Life of a Cave-Diving Pioneer
Exley was also one of the first divers to introduce Trimix to cave diving. While early experiments using mixed gases in the U.S. had tragic outcomes (Exley's friend Louis Holtzendorf died on one such dive), Exley's deep dives at Nacimiento del Rio Mante, a Mexican cave or cenote, proved the usefulness of Trimix for cave diving. Not only could these mixtures allow a diver to go deeper without succumbing to narcosis or oxygen poisoning, but they also reduced the amount of time spent at decompression stops during the ascent. In March of 1989, he descended to a depth of 881 feet using Trimix, a world record at the time. He returned to the surface after 14 hours of decompression with no side effects.
In August of 1993, Exley reached 863 feet when he touched bottom in Bushmansgat (Bushman's Hole) in South Africa, but not before experiencing a serious case of high pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS) that included blurred vision and intense, uncontrollable tremors. He joined Jim Bowden in focusing his efforts on a cave known as Zacatón (aka Pit 6350) just north of Tampico, Mexico. The cave is known to be at least 1,080 feet deep. In September, Bowden dove to 774 feet, Ann Kristovich, the team physician, reached 541 feet during a dive, a new depth record for women. The previous record had been set at Rio Mante by Mary Ellen Eckoff, Exley's wife.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Many Mysteries of Neanderthals
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| Some Neanderthals may have had pale skin and red hair similar to that of some modern humans. CREDIT: Michael Hofreiter and Kurt Fiusterweier |
We are currently the only human species alive, but as recently as maybe 24,000 years ago another one walked the earth — the Neanderthals.
These extinct humans were the closest relatives we had, and tantalizing new hints from researchers suggest that we might have been intimately close indeed. The mystery of whether Neanderthals and us had sex might possibly get solved if the entire Neanderthal genome is reported soon as expected. The matter of why they died and we succeeded, however, remains an open question.
Maybe not nasty and brutish, but still short
First recognized in the Neander Valley in Germany in 1856, Neanderthals revealed that modern humans possess a rich and complex family tree that includes now-extinct relatives.
Neanderthals — also called Neandertals, due to changes in German spelling over the years — had robust skeletons that gave them wide bodies and short limbs compared to us. This made them more like wrestlers, while modern humans in comparison are more like long-distance runners.
These extinct humans were the closest relatives we had, and tantalizing new hints from researchers suggest that we might have been intimately close indeed. The mystery of whether Neanderthals and us had sex might possibly get solved if the entire Neanderthal genome is reported soon as expected. The matter of why they died and we succeeded, however, remains an open question.
Maybe not nasty and brutish, but still short
First recognized in the Neander Valley in Germany in 1856, Neanderthals revealed that modern humans possess a rich and complex family tree that includes now-extinct relatives.
Neanderthals — also called Neandertals, due to changes in German spelling over the years — had robust skeletons that gave them wide bodies and short limbs compared to us. This made them more like wrestlers, while modern humans in comparison are more like long-distance runners.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Masons' cash will help cave rescue team
A Yorkshire rescue team will receive a cash boost this week with the donation of £30,000 to help it carry out its work.
The Cave Rescue Organisation, based in the Yorkshire Dales, was chosen by freemasons to mark their charity’s 150th anniversary in the West Riding. The CRO, based in Clapham, although now in North Yorkshire, falls within the historic West Riding of Yorkshire.
The rescue team, which operates both above and below ground, is one of five organisations to benefit from grants from the masons and was nominated by the Wenning Lodge at Bentham, 7km (4½ miles) from the organisation’s base. The masons have chosen organisations within the West Riding to benefit donations, including a Calderdale search-and-rescue vehicle and projects to help sports facilities, young people and disabled students.
The CRO cash will go towards its building and educational project.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “Despite its name, CRO provides a ‘safety net’ for visitors and local people alike, not just those engaged in active outdoor pursuits, but casual strollers, people missing from home – even stranded animals.”
The grant will help improve training facilities and provide safety education for young people, for both local youth groups and visiting school parties. Clapham has a local-authority-run outdoor education centre.
Members of the masons’ Wenning lodge learned of their successful application at a presentation dinner in September at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.
CRO chairman Jack Pickup said: “Our members often think that people see CRO only in terms of our claim to being the world’s first cave rescue team, but they underestimate people’s understanding of what we do.
“It is particularly gratifying that the masons, in common with several other community-based organisations and in celebrating 150 years of their own charitable works, should recognise the voluntary effort, made by CRO members for the benefit of the whole community, as we are in the run-up to our own 75th anniversary.”
In the last ten months, the Cave Rescue Organisation has helped 93 walkers, 34 cavers, four climbers, three mountain bikers, three people ‘at risk’ or missing from home, two canyoners, one fellrunner, one rock scrambler, three sheep and two dogs. The team also conducted a search of fields around a burned-out farm-house.
The Cave Rescue Organisation, based in the Yorkshire Dales, was chosen by freemasons to mark their charity’s 150th anniversary in the West Riding. The CRO, based in Clapham, although now in North Yorkshire, falls within the historic West Riding of Yorkshire.
The rescue team, which operates both above and below ground, is one of five organisations to benefit from grants from the masons and was nominated by the Wenning Lodge at Bentham, 7km (4½ miles) from the organisation’s base. The masons have chosen organisations within the West Riding to benefit donations, including a Calderdale search-and-rescue vehicle and projects to help sports facilities, young people and disabled students.
The CRO cash will go towards its building and educational project.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “Despite its name, CRO provides a ‘safety net’ for visitors and local people alike, not just those engaged in active outdoor pursuits, but casual strollers, people missing from home – even stranded animals.”
The grant will help improve training facilities and provide safety education for young people, for both local youth groups and visiting school parties. Clapham has a local-authority-run outdoor education centre.
Members of the masons’ Wenning lodge learned of their successful application at a presentation dinner in September at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.
CRO chairman Jack Pickup said: “Our members often think that people see CRO only in terms of our claim to being the world’s first cave rescue team, but they underestimate people’s understanding of what we do.
“It is particularly gratifying that the masons, in common with several other community-based organisations and in celebrating 150 years of their own charitable works, should recognise the voluntary effort, made by CRO members for the benefit of the whole community, as we are in the run-up to our own 75th anniversary.”
In the last ten months, the Cave Rescue Organisation has helped 93 walkers, 34 cavers, four climbers, three mountain bikers, three people ‘at risk’ or missing from home, two canyoners, one fellrunner, one rock scrambler, three sheep and two dogs. The team also conducted a search of fields around a burned-out farm-house.
Source: Grough