26-29 april 2012
Iglesias (Sardinia, Italy)
Since the early stages in the development of human kind, caves were used as mines to extract minerals impossible to find at the surface. Later, mining activities, digging galleries underground, allowed to reach a peculiar type of natural cavities, the so called "mine caves", that would otherwise be impossible to explore and study.
These cavities, which are particularly widespread within carbonate formations, were known since the antiquity but they started to be studied only very recently.
Mine caves have shown to be extremely important in several research fields: from speleogenesis to cave mineralogy, from history of mining activities to cave tourism, just to cite the most important ones.
A first Symposium on mine caves was held in Iglesias in 2004 giving a strong impulse to the research, which flourished in the following years not only in Italy but also in many Countries abroad. For these reasons the Sardinian Geomining and Historical Environmental Park, together with the Sardinian Speleological Federation and the Italian Institute of Speleology decided to organize a Second International Symposium on Mine Caves to discuss the latest achieved results in this field all around the World.
More information on the conference, including registration and accommodations can be found at the official website: www.international-symposium-on-mine-caves.org
Abstracts can be sent until January 31, 2012.