Cavers return from New Zealand's third deepest cave

A group of determined cavers has plotted New Zealand's third deepest cave on their fifth trip into the bowels of Mt Arthur.

The five-member Extreme Cave Team has so far mapped 9.5km of the Stormy Pot system they discovered last year while seeking shelter from a mountain storm. They crawled out of the system on Monday night after seven days underground.

Team leader Kieran McKay said the team had followed the winding system to a depth of 760 metres. They believed they were now about 100m from the explored end of the mountain's Nettlebed cave system.

A link between the two systems could take it to a depth of 1200m making it the deepest cave in the country, he said.

Researchers Explore Stream-Filled Cavern at Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have conducted an initial survey of what appears to be an important, ancient water source in a cave that was been discovered during excavation work for a new train station being constructed at the entrance to Jerusalem.

View from the newly discovered cave at the entrance to Jerusalem. (Credit: Image courtesy of Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Cave electronics ebook

The Communications and Electronics Section (CES) of the National Speleological Society (NSS) released a new version of Speleonics, one of the few cave electronics magazines published.

Contents of number 27:

• Radio Slave for Flash (A. Beswick )
• 185 KHz Ferrite Core Antenna (P.R. Jorgenson)
• Radio Propagation Testing in Lava Tubes (J. Cardy)
• Carlsbad Caverns Radio Caving (P.R. Jorgenson)
• Very High Power Radiobeacon (B. Pease
• The TP-6N Field Telephone (J. Cardy)
• Simple Phone Line Amplifier (J. Cardy)
• Modifying the Classic Phone Patch (J. Cardy)

You can download it here.

Older versions are available on the NSS CommElect pages.

80-year-old hopes to have broken cave dive record

A new world record for the oldest human ever to take part in a cave dive may have been set at Wookey Hole Caves.

John Buxton from Bedford marked his 80th birthday with a cave dive, swimming 2,000 metres underground and underwater.

He managed to reach more than 20 of the underwater chambers in the Wookey Hole Cave system.

John Buxton, who has been cave diving since 1953 is believed to be the oldest man ever to cave dive, though he said very firmly that he wasn't making any claim of this kind.

Fellow cave diver Martin Grass said: "I've spoken to people all over the world, and while there have been plenty of people open water diving into their 80s, nobody has ever heard of an octogenarian cave diver.

Mr Buxton said: "I would have liked to have reached the 22nd chamber, but I had an air leak on my jacket and had to turn back.

"The leak, in a buoyancy waistcoat made it difficult to move about underwater."

There are three chambers with air in them, and 22 chambers in total.

"I've just always liked doing it," said Mr Buxton.

"I was a caver first, and would come across these cave passages made by water and forming puddles, which are called sumps, and said that it was a shame that you couldn't explore them.

"When someone pointed out the rope leading into the water and said that people were already doing it, so it sounded like a good idea to me."

In the early days of cave diving, divers used diving suits and after the Second World War would use the re-breathers used by submariners to escape from crippled submarines.

Later Mr Buxton moved to using air tanks underwater.

For his effort in Wookey Hole Caves he used two 12-litre cylinders weighing more than 50 lbs.

Mr Buxton, who has also cave dived in the Bahamas, Florida and Mexico has no intention of hanging up his air tanks.

Source: This is Somerset

Colorado caves opened despite threat to bats

The Bureau of Land Management has opened access to three caves in Colorado that state officials had recommended remain closed to prevent human spread of a deadly bat disease.

The agency placed tight restrictions on a permit for access to three caves in Glenwood Springs, Colo., that the agency said have either no use or very limited use by bats. They will be open during the National Speleological Society’s convention July 18-22.

Groups will be limited to 10 to 12 visits per cave with no more than five people per visit. An approved leader for each tour will be required to ensure the cave visitors follow the latest protocols for decontaminating their gear.

The action comes after the Colorado Division of Wildlife advised that the BLM not to open the caves because of documented bat activity inside. The convention is expected to draw cavers from around the country, including regions in the eastern and southern United States afflicted with white nose syndrome, which has been spreading steadily southwest.

“Providing convention attendees an outlet for caving under these strictly controlled conditions will help mitigate risk of introducing white-nose syndrome and encourage any visitation to these areas to occur under the oversight of an experienced local guide,” said BLM Colorado River Valley Field Manager Steve Bennett.

But decontamination protocols fall “short of providing the level of protection the state biologists think bats need,” said spokeswoman Mollie Matteson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, which has petitioned to ban nonessential human travel into caves on public lands.
“The best thing for bats right now is for people to stay out of caves until scientists know more about this disease," said Matteson. "Bat biologists are saying a human-caused jump of white-nose syndrome into the western United States could be absolutely devastating, so why are some federal land managers taking the risk and leaving caves open?”

Last month, the White River National Forest allowed guided trips into 14 caves on national forest land. Caves on national forest lands in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain had been off-limits since last summer.

Scientists believe that white-nose syndrome, a fungus that spreads through the nose, ears and on the wings of bats, causing the animal to end hibernation early and starve, can be transmitted by clothing and gear of cave visitors. The illness has swept across 19 states over the last five years, killing more than 1 million bats.

Federal wildlife authorities announced this week the Eastern small-footed bat and Northern long-eared bat in the Colorado region may deserve Endangered Species Act protection because of the threat from white-nose syndrome and habitat destruction. These animals may be on the brink of extinction.

The Center for Biological Diversity said all 25 hibernating bat species in North America may be affected by this fatal syndrome.

Source: LA Times

Therion 5.3.8 (beta) released

Therion is a complete package which processes survey data and generates maps or 3D models of caves.

A new beta version (5.3.8) has been released and is available here.

Therion solves the most annoying problem of cave cartography – how to keep a map of large and complicated cave system always up-to-date. 

Main features include:

Complete maps with all the detail. No additional ink stroke is needed.

• Maps are dynamic, always up-to-date – i.e. they are automatically re-drawn after loop closure, blunder fix, scale or symbol set change
• 3D models are created using 2D maps

It runs on wide variety of platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X. It is completely free, released under the terms of GNU GPL, with source code available. It doesn't require any other commercial software to run.

Source: Therion

Recall of Crux, Nara and Nemo harnesses

Singing Rock is notifying to customers that some of the produced climbing harnesses CRUX, NARA, NEMO may pose a potential casualty hazard due to inaccuracy in the production. 

Two U.S. Bat Species May Get Endangered Species Act Protection

Eastern small-footed bat, Myotis lebeii,
with white-nose syndrome
(Photo by Ryan von Linden)

Two species of bats may warrant federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said today following an initial review of a petition seeking to protect the species under the Endangered Species Act.

In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Service said it will initiate a more thorough status review for the eastern small-footed bat and northern long-eared bat to determine whether these species should be added to the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.

Information in the petition and in the Service's files indicates that the continued existence of one or both of these species may be threatened by several factors, including habitat destruction and degradation, disturbance of hibernation areas and maternity roosts, and white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease that that has killed more than one million cave-hibernating bats since its discovery in 2006 in a cave in upstate New York.

Ancient Bone Engraving found in Florida

A bone fragment found in Vero Beach, Florida, dated at least 13000 years old, shows a carved image of a mammoth or mastodon and may be the first of its kind found in North America.

3 Spanish cavers rescued from Pierre St-Martin system

On saturday 25th of June, a team of 5 Spanish cavers descended the "Tête Sauvage" - one of the many entrances of the Pierre Saint-Martin / Gouffre des Partages system - in an attempt to make the traverse towards the Salle Verna (Tunnel du Vent), a 7,7 km long underground trip with a height difference of 832 m .

About one hour away from the bottom of the pits, the group splitted as 3 cavers were completely exhausted. The remaining two continued and raised an alert with "Spéléo Secours Français".

On Sunday, the cave rescue organisation was able to make contact with the three cavers, installed a base camp to reheat and replenish the Spanish cavers and started the rescue. Today all cavers exited without further incidents.

Source: SSF & La Republique des Pyrenées 1 & 2

New smartphone app allows users to identify and locate bats

A team of British bat researchers have developed the ultimate batphone: iBats. It’s an iPhone and Android app that can be used to identify and geolocate bats. All the user has to do is point his or her phone into the night sky and record the sounds of the bats flying above. The phone picks up the animals’ echolocation pulses – ultrasonic sounds bats use to locate prey – and uploads them to a central database. The app will save effort and time for thousands of volunteers who currently lug around at least three pieces of equipment to do this job.

The developers are now looking for money to see if they can integrate an ultrasonic microphone into smartphones that will enable everybody with a phone to use the app.

Currently, a special microphone attachment is required to record the bats.

Bats lend an ear to acoustic engineering

3-D modelling has exposed how bat species have evolved different shaped pinnae - the visible part of the ear - to help them navigate and hunt using echolocation.

The models show how the pinnae have evolved to maximise sensitivity, a feature which could be used to inspire new designs in sonar and radar engineering.

3D Action camera

GoPro is getting into 3D with its 1080p HD HERO actioncam range, but it's taking a slightly different approach. Instead of jamming two lenses and two sensors into one unit, the company has opted to build a special casing that joins two of the existing 2D cameras at the hip. The 3D HERO Expansion kit will be compatible with all 1080p HD HERO cameras and is available in stores at a cost of US$100.

Route to Grotte de Niaux reopened

A week ago the access to the tourist cave Grotte de Niaux was blocked due to rockfall. 

About 30 m³ of blocks have been removed. 

The authorities from the region would like to announce that both the route and the cave are accessible again.

The Cave of Niaux is located in Niaux in the Ariège département of south-western France. Like Lascaux it contains many prehistoric paintings of superior quality, in the case of Niaux from the Magdalenian period.

Early human fossils unearthed in Ukraine

Ancient remains uncovered in Ukraine represent some of the oldest evidence of modern people in Europe, experts have claimed.

Archaeologists found human bones and teeth, tools, ivory ornaments and animal remains at the Buran-Kaya cave site.

The 32,000-year-old fossils bear cut marks suggesting they were defleshed as part of a post-mortem ritual.

Details have been published in the journal PLoS One.

Hell in the cave

"Hell in the cave", a multimedia show dealing with the first Canto of Dantes 'The Divine Comedy' now playing in the caves of Castellana.

Source: Hell in the cave

Extinct sea cow fossil found in Philippines

The bones of an extinct sea cow species that lived about 20 million years ago have been discovered in a cave in the Philippines by a team of Italian scientists, the expedition head said Monday.

Several ribs and spine parts of the aquatic mammal were found in February and March in limestone rock above the waters of an underground river on the island of Palawan, said University of Florence geologist Leonardo Piccini.

"The fossil is in the rock, in the cave. We cannot remove it and we don't want to extract it. We would like to wait (for) when the technology will allow us to study the fossil without extracting it," Piccini told AFP.

Homage to cave diver Eric Establie

Last weekend a ceremony was held in Labastide de Virac (France) for Eric Establie.

Friends, family and rescue workers from the Speleo Secours paid their last tribute to this great cave diver, who got trapped in the Dragonnière de Gaud and was found dead at the end of a dramatic rescue operation.

A stele was erected on the place where more then 400 volunteers from multiple rescue organisations and countries camped in an attempt to locate and rescue him.

Source: Le Dauphin

Baba07100 put together a small tribute to Eric:

A report about the accident and rescue attempt can be found on: Speleo Secours (Fr) & France 24 (En)

Recall for replacement: GRIGRI 2

If you have a GRIGRI 2 (D14 2O, D14 2G, D14 2B) with the first five digits of the serial number between 10326 and 11136, stop use immediately and contact Petzl America to initiate an exchange.

Ancient remains uncovered in Ukraine represent some of the oldest evidence of modern people in Europe

Archaeologists found human bones and teeth, tools, ivory ornaments and animal remains at the Buran-Kaya cave site.

The 32,000-year-old fossils bear cut marks suggesting they were defleshed as part of a post-mortem ritual.

Details have been published in the journal PLoS One.

Remains at the site bear cut marks where
stone tools were used to remove flesh

Archaeologist Dr Alexander Yanevich from the National Ukrainian Academy of Science in Kiev discovered the four Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean mountains in 1991.

Since then, roughly two hundred human bone fragments have been unearthed at the site.

Among the shards of human bones and teeth, archaeologists have found ornaments fashioned from ivory, along with the abundant remains of animals.

The artefacts made by humans at the site allowed archaeologists to tie the ancient people to a cultural tradition known as the Gravettian.

Ancient Male Hominids Stayed At Home While Females Wandered

According to a study of hominids — the early ancestors of humans — it appears that women were likely to leave their natal groups while men spent their lives in the nearby surroundings of their birthplace.

Those were the results from researchers looking at the enamel of fossilised teeth millions of years old. A similar female migration pattern was found in chimpanzees and bonobos but not in gorillas and many other primates. The findings increase our knowledge of how our ancestors lived some two million years ago, according to the scientists (doi:10.1038/nature10149).

International Symposium: Karst Research, Challenges for the XXIst century

Brussels, 30 September 2011

&

Rochefort, 01 October 2011 

The International Symposium "Karst Research, Challenges for the XXIst century” will be dedicated to recent findings in karst research and important remaining questions or controversies.

The two-volume book ‘Les cavernes et les rivières souterraines de la Belgique’ by Van den Broeck, Martel and Rahir (VMR), published in 1910, was a landmark that set the basis for karstological studies in Belgium. One century later, it is time to measure at an international scale the progress made and to look forward. The notion of ‘karst area’ first used for carbonate rock landscapes evolved to a global concept of rock dissolution creating subterranean porosity in widely varying scales of dimension and time. A new paradigm is upcoming with rock alteration as base for karst formation in all type of rocks and in a global concept of landscape evolution. In this context, bacteria also regain interest, as they could play an active role in karst formation.

Deep karst and paleokarst extend the geological timeframe and specify the role of karst in the diagenetic sequence, with direct impact on geo-energy resources. Models suggest different environments for karstification, compared to the most visible active karst in Belgian Paleozoic rocks.

Karst aquifers form the main groundwater resource, however presenting extreme spatial and temporal variability of water, solute, sediment and contaminant transport. Successes and pitfalls of modeling water balances, vertical transport in the vadose zone, hydraulics and evolution of conduit systems, and the role of tracer tests, do not only aid for sustainable exploitation of water resources but also for risk assessment, vulnerability mapping and climate change impacts.

Karstic processes, presently very active in Belgium, sometimes interfere with human activity. Collapses, sinkhole mobility, pollution due to waste water seepage are common events. Karstic constraints are mapped and considered in several studies.

The disciplines working in karst areas have broadened since karst is seen as an archive, not only for past human occupation but also for the former environment and climate. Detrital as well as chemical deposits are investigated and delivered already a huge amount of information about the sedimentological, topographical, environmental and climatic evolution and variability. Recent research on speleothems focuses on the increased resolution and improved chronology of continental palaeoclimate records.

Finally the karst environment and in particular caves are among the rare last places on earth were new territories can be discovered by humans, even in densely urbanized regions, giving access to a peculiar (bio)mineralogical content. Karst features and landscapes are among the most attractive but also vulnerable places on earth, requiring adaptive ways of management.

On day one, keynote lecturers will give an overview of recent knowledge on the genesis and the dynamics of karst areas and associated environmental geo-archives. Poster sessions will be dedicated to recent research in Belgium.

On day two field trip is planned to the Underground system of the Lomme & Wamme rivers in Rochefort.

It is an open meeting, therefore students, cavers, researchers and professionals are warmly welcomed to participate in the conference.

Archaeologists Unscramble Ancient Graffiti In Israel

Aramaic is the lingua franca of the ancient Middle East, the linguistic root of modern day Hebrew and Arabic.

"Once you understand Aramaic," says Karen Stern, "you can read anything. You can read Hebrew, you can read Phoenician. I always call it the little black dress of Semitic languages."

Stern, 35, is an archaeologist and an assistant professor in the history department at Brooklyn College. Her passion is the tomb graffiti of the ancient Jews in what was then Roman Palestine. Graffiti has been "published, but sort of disregarded," she says. "Whereas I think it is intimate, vocal and spontaneous, and adds to the historical record."

In this, Stern seems to be supported by scholars: She is completing a yearlong fellowship at the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Lascaux - The Prehistory Of Art

National Cave Karst Research Institute Biennual Report

	View the National Cave Karst Research Institute 2009-2010 Annual Report (PDF 3.6 MB)
	View the National Cave Karst Research Institute 2007-2008 Annual Report (PDF 3.8 MB)
	View the National Cave Karst Research Institute 2006-2007 Annual Report (PDF 4.8 MB)
	View the NCKRI 2004-2005 Biennial Report (PDF 5.8 MB)

Speleomusic competition: UIS Anthem

   International Union of Speleology

Dear Speleo-Musicians, Artists, and Friends,

The Arts and Letters Commission of the International Union of Speleology (UIS) is organizing a competition to create an anthem for the UIS. The details are below. Please forward this message to anyone or any list you believe may be interested. For more information, contact Ian Ellis Chandler below.

George Veni
UIS Vice-President of Administration

---

UIS ANTHEM: Conditions of competition

• Entries must be between 60 to 90 seconds in length.
• All entries must be provided digitally to the UIS Bureau through the UIS Arts and Letters Commission (Ian Ellis Chandler).
• Entries to be received by Arts and Letters Commission by 15 April, 2012. They will be considered by the Bureau summer meeting 2012. The Bureau retains the option not to select any entry as suitable.
• The digital entry will not include lyrics. Lyrics can be attached, and a digital audio version can be presented. Lyrics can be in any of the following languages of the UIS: English, French, German, Italian, Russian or Spanish.
• Entries must be original and not based on any existing music.
• Entries should be universal and not in a style generally associated with any country.
• The style should capable of appealing for many years and not based on any particular modern style.
• Entries should try to capture the spirit of speleology.

The winning entry (if one is selected) will be revealed at the Opening Ceremony of the 2013 ICS in Brno, Czech Republic, as the UIS flag is hoisted.

There is no financial award, except the honour of composing the UIS anthem.

Initial contact to:

Ian Ellis Chandler
UIS Arts and Letters Commission
artcaves@yahoo.esTelephone: 0034 942619903 (Spain)

Scurion add-on heat sink

Scurion has released an add-on heat sink for their high performance headlamps. Normally the heat fins of the lamp should suffice, but in some circumstances however, there is not enough cooling, causing the lamp to run too hot.

There is no damage from that, an internal temperature sensor prevents the lamp head from overheating. If you have an activity like cave photography in Indonesia, where it is warm and you have little or no movement, you can improve cooling using the add-on heatsink.

This is a precision CNC machined part which fits on the back side of the caving head. You can order the lamp head with this option or do the upgrade yourself - if you have a newer lamp head with the four mounting threads.

Installation instructions:

Source: Scurion

Stunning Grotto Becomes Spelunker Holy Grail

A fantastic limestone cave was discovered in eastern Germany during the digging of a railway tunnel three years ago -- but then sealed off with concrete. Now, local cave enthusiasts are trying to find a way back into the magical grotto.

When Jens Seidler entered the grotto beneath eastern Germany's Thuringian Forest for the first time, he felt ecstatic and intoxicated. Like the ferryman of Hades, he first rowed across a shimmering black lake in a rubber raft. Then he passed the stalactites, red as carrots, and fairytale-like limestone archways. In some passages, he was up to his hips in mud.

Seidler made his way deeper and deeper into the hollow limestone formation. "I was swimming in endorphins," he recalls, likening his trip to the one in Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

Seidler, a member of the Thuringia's THV cave association, is one of the few people who has seen one of Europe's most beautiful caves with his own eyes. The mineralogical treasure chamber near the town of Sonneberg could very well be several kilometers long.

Karst conference at WKU draws international experts

Western Kentucky University is hosting an international conference dedicated to the study of a familiar local landscape.

Southcentral Kentucky, home to plentiful caves and sinkholes, is a part of a karst landscape, making it an appropriate spot for this conference.

Karst landscapes - landscapes created by water in a carbonate rock setting, such as limestone or gypsum - include features such as sinkholes, springs and caves.

The 2011 Karst Hydrogeology and Ecosystems Conference began this morning with an opening ceremony at WKU’s Snell Hall with a brief speech from Gordon Baylis, vice president for research at WKU. The conference will continue until Friday, bringing together 80 participants from 16 countries.

Iceland: Lava tubes and speleothems

Michel Detay and Olivier Dequincey published a very nice article on Planet Terre about the basaltic lava tubes in Iceland. The article is illustrated with lots of magnificint pictures. Go check it out here.

And while we're at it: Here you can find a beautiful gallery from Alexander Mustard of underwater rifts near the tectonic plates of Iceland.

Abisso di Malaga Fosetta pushed to -1011m

Members of the Gruppo Grotte Emilio Roner Rovereto and the Gruppo Grotte Schio Cai pushed the depth of the Abisso di Malaga Fosetta in Veneto, Italy to -1011m during a 32 hour trip into the system, making it the first cave in the Veneto-region to pass the magical -1000m border.

The cave is now the 93rd deepest cave in the world!


Source: Scintilena

Subterranean worms from hell

The nematode Halicephalobus mephisto lives nearly a mile (1.3 km)
underground in rock fractures near South African goldmines.
Photo: University Ghent, Belgium - Gaetan Borgonie

New species of nematode discovered more than a kilometre underground.

The discovery of multicellular creatures from the deepest mines sounds like something from the pages of J. R. R. Tolkien. But scientists have now found four species of nematode, or roundworm, lurking in South Africa's gold mines at depths where only single-celled bacteria were thought to reside. And at least one of them,Halicephalobus mephisto, has never been described before.

The 0.5-millimetre-long H. mephisto, named in reference to the light-hating demon of the underworld, feeds on films of bacteria that grow more than a kilometre down within the warm walls of the Beatrix gold mine, located some 240 kilometres southwest of Johannesburg.

"It's like 1 million times the size of the bacteria it eats — sort of like finding Moby Dick in Lake Ontario," says Tullis Onstott, a geomicrobiologist at Princeton University in New Jersey and a co-author of the study, which is published today in Nature.

Ancient Hominid Males Stayed Home While Females Roamed, Study Finds

A skull of Paranthropus robustus from Swartkrans Cave in South Africa

The males of two bipedal hominid species that roamed the South African savannah more than a million years ago were stay-at-home kind of guys when compared to the gadabout gals, says a new high-tech study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The team, which studied teeth from a group of extinct Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustusindividuals from two adjacent cave systems in South Africa, found more than half of the female teeth were from outside the local area, said CU-Boulder adjunct professor and lead study author Sandi Copeland. In contrast, only about 10 percent of the male hominid teeth were from elsewhere, suggesting they likely grew up and died in the same area.

"One of our goals was to try to find something out about early hominid landscape use," said Copeland, who also is affiliated with the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. "Here we have the first direct glimpse of the geographic movements of early hominids, and it appears the females preferentially moved away from their residential groups."

A paper on the subject is being published in the June 2 issue of Nature. Co-authors included CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, Darryl de Ruiter from Texas A&M University, Julia Lee Thorp from the University of Oxford, Daryl Codron from the University of Zurich, Petrus le Roux from the University of Cape Town, Vaughan Grimes of Memorial University-St. John's campus in Newfoundland and Michael Richards of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.