2013 WKU/Mammoth Karst Field Studies Program

Here's the course list announcement for 2013:

The Hoffman Environmental Research Institute through its Center for Cave and Karst Studies and in cooperation with the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning and Western Kentucky University, are pleased to announce the launch of the Summer 2013 Karst Field Studies Program. Courses this summer will include:

• Karst Geology, June 2-8, Dr. Art Palmer
• Karst Geophysics, June 9-15, Dr. Lewis Land
• Cave Photography, June 10-14, Dr. Dave Bunnell
• Karst Hydrology June 17-21, Drs. William White and Nicholas Crawford
• Cave Biology and Ecosystems, June 17-21, Dr. Dave Ashley

Courses may be taken for graduate, undergraduate, or continuing education credit. Courses may also be taken as non-credit workshops.

For more information about the program, courses, how to register, and instructors, please visit www.karstfieldstudies.com. While visiting the website be sure to also check out the 'Scholarships' tab for information about the Nick Crawford Karst Education Scholarship, a competitive award designed to offer financial assistance for attending a course.

If you have any questions please contact the Karst Field Studies Director, Dr. Leslie North, at [email protected].

Shippensburg university to host 2013 national caving convention

John Boswell, treasurer of the Franklin County Grotto,
crawls through a tight space in Persistence Cave in Williamson.

Some 1,000 cave explorers — “spelunkers” to the uninitiated — from around the world are expected to come to Shippensburg next summer for the 2013 National Speleological Society Convention.

The convention, the first in Pennsylvania in recent history, will be Aug. 4-10 at Shippensburg University. Typically, the society’s conventions attract cavers from across the United States, as well as from Eastern Europe.

Randy Hurst, public relations chairman for the event, said nearly 1,300 people attended the 2012 convention in Lewisburg, W.Va.

“That area has some of the biggest caves in the country,” Hurst said. “They have the same limestone we have in Pennsylvania, but it’s thicker — so the caves can get really huge.”

Karst-O-Rama 2013

July 12-14, 2013

Greater Cincinnati Grotto is “Simply Caving” at Karst-O-Rama for our 21st year at Great Saltpetre Cave Preserve in Mt. Vernon, KY! 

Registration is limited to NSS/Grotto members only with the option to sponsor up to a total of three (3) non-member guests. 

There will be an abundance of cave trips and many family-friendly activities including Kids Corner, climbing contest, photo contest, map contest, survey class, vertical workshop, geology field trip, gear vendors, and more! 

Pre-registration incentives will be offered. 

To learn more, visit our website: http://karstorama.com and like us on Facebook for updates.

Pre-Registration is now open

Call for abstracts -- National Cave and Karst Management Symposium

The National Cave and Karst Management Symposium (NCKMS) is now accepting abstracts for its next meeting, which will be held on 4-8 November 2013 at the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. 

This is the 20th of this internationally attended conference series. 

For details about the conference and to submit an abstract, go to https://sites.google.com/site/nckms2013/home.

Dales exhibition marks 175th anniversary of landmark cave's discovery

An exhibition highlighting the history of one of the most famous caves in the Yorkshire Dales has been officially opened.

Victoria Cave near Settle was discovered 175 years ago this year.

Major excavations were carried out in the 19th century but the thick clay deposits in it are still providing scientists with an amazing record of climate change across the Dales over hundreds of thousands of years.

A 130,000-year-old hippo and elephant and hyena bones were recovered by the Victorians along with evidence that it was used by the Romans, possibly as a shrine.

In fact, the cave is considered to be so important that it has been classified as a scheduled monument and as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The exhibition - called ‘Victoria Cave revisited’ - is being staged in the Museum of North Craven Life in The Folly in Settle. It was opened on Friday by Carl Lis, the chairman of Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA), which owns the cave.

Event: 53nd Caving Week, Poland

The 53rd Caving Week of the Slovak Speleological Society

August 1st to 5th, 2012

High Tatra Mts. near the city of Zakopane (Poland) 

See the detailed programme here or visit the website of the event where you can also find a Polish and Slovakian version.

Jazz concert at Historic Three Caves set for Saturday

This weekend you'll have a chance to hear some great jazz at a unique outdoor venue in Huntsville.

Acclaimed saxophonist Tom Braxton will be in concert on Saturday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m. at the Land Trust’s Historic Three Caves - a former limestone quarry at the base of Monte Sano Mountain.

Pre-concert tickets for Land Trust members are $15.00. Non-member pre-sold tickets are $20 each. All tickets at the door are $25.

Boxed dinner selections from The Eaves Restaurant may be pre-ordered for an additional $15 from the Land Trust.

Free parking is available at Huntsville Hospital’s lots at Lowell & Adams Streets. Shuttles will take you to the Caves beginning at 6:15 pm. The June 9 concert will start at 7:00 pm. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Land Trust at 256-534-5263.

Concert goers are encouraged to bring their own chairs and picnics if boxed dinners are not pre-ordered. Dress is “Cave Casual” - jeans and closed toe shoes due to gravel.

The caves will be lit from within by a professional lighting company.

For more information go to http://landtrustnal.org/two-jazz-concerts-at-three-caves-presented-by-redstone-federal-credit-union/

Simek to hold local cave art presentation at Palace Theatre

Dr. Jan Simek

Thousands of years ago, the familiar places that people call home on the Cumberland Plateau were the hunting grounds of several Native American Indian tribes. Then, as now, deer and other game were plentiful, rivers ran clear, and caves for shelter were abundant.

Rain leaching through the soft layers of sandstone that make up the Plateau carved out numerous caves. With at least 9,600 caves in Tennessee, more caves are found here than in any other part of the U.S.

Dr. Jan Simek, professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and a leading expert on prehistoric cave art in the southeastern United States, has made a career of studying ancient drawings and pictographs in caves around the world, including Devil’s Step Hollow Cave in Cumberland County. Dr. Simek’s publications on caves appear in several books, including Discovering North American Rock Art, and The Rock-Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insight.

Devil’s Step Hollow Cave in Cumberland County contains one of the oldest and largest collections of Native American art in the U.S., said to be over 1,000 years old. To preserve this legacy, Devil’s Step Hollow Cave has been sealed to the public. However, Dr. Simek will be in Crossville Tuesday, June 26 at the Palace Theatre, 72. S. Main St., for a presentation of the photographs and history of these petroglyphs and pictographs. The photography of this ancient art is by Alan Cressler of Chattanooga.

Sponsorship for this program about the fascinating early history of the county is by the city of Crossville, PEG Broadcasting and the Crossville Chronicle.

Coordinating this effort have been Billy Loggins for the city of Crossville, Ann Looney of Arts Roundup and Sharron Eckert of CACE and the Shanks Center for the Arts. They will welcome you at the Palace Theatre for a reception at 5 p.m. Dr. Simek’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m.

Admission is free, but a ticket is required for admission. Tickets are available at the Palace Theatre, the Shanks Center for the Arts, First National Bank on Peavine Rd. and at Cumberland Eye Care (Dr. Galloway) on Peavine Rd.

Following the presentation, there will be a free exhibition of Alan Cressler’s photographs of the cave art from Devil’s Step Cave Thursday, July 5 through Friday, Aug. 31 at the Shanks Center for the Arts, 140 N. Main St. across from the Crossville Depot.

For more information, contact the Palace Theatre at 484-6133, or the Shanks Center for the Arts at 787-1936.

Lewis & Clark Caverns celebrating National Trails Day

Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park is planning a day of activities for National Trails Day, June 2. The public is invited to contribute to trail work, enjoy music and food or take a tour of the Park’s trail system.

Events begin at 9 a.m. in the Main Visitor Center with a program on trail use and weed control. Mid-day events include lunch and music by the Tumbleweed Connection. The final event of the day will be a 2 p.m. tour of the trails.

No registration is needed.

Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park is located along Montana Highway 2, 15 miles east of Whitehall. For more information, call 406-287-3541 or email [email protected].

Descend Into The Cave

Musicians Sam Amidon, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and The Staves are being forced underground.

The artists will perform at the Mitchelstown Caves from Thursday, July 26th to Saturday, July 28th, following on from the success of last year’s event, which saw Duke Special and James Vincent McMorrow entertain half a mile underneath the surface.

The special concert is one of a series of events on the Opera House’s summer programme, which was released last week. Other highlights include The Dubliners on Sunday, June 3rd, and a plethora of other musical treats such as Alarm Will Sound on Wednesday, June 6th; Size2Shoes on Sunday, July 15th; Katie Kim on Saturday, July 21st; Hidden Highways and Peter Delaney on Saturday, August 11th; Efterklang on Saturday, September 15th and Opera D’Arte on Sunday, September 23rd.

Leading the comedy is Michael McIntyre from Monday, June 25th to Wednesday, June 27th, followed later in the year by Mario Rosenstock with Gift Grub Live 2, Kevin Bloody Wilson, Des Bishop and Frankie Boyle.

Following the success of last year’s The Winter’s Tale, Corcadorca are collaborating once again with the Opera House, with Romeo and Juliet to be staged from Wednesday, October 10th through to Saturday, October 20th. Other theatre highlights include The Country Girls, Frankenstein, The Titanic, The Sound of Music and panto Alice in Wonderland.

CEO Mary Hickson explains that the Opera House is a “crucial part” of Cork’s cultural infrastructure. “We continue to strive to raise its profile in and outside of Cork with every season,” she says.

For more information see www.corkoperahouse.ie.

International Cave-Survey Camp Topo Sorbas 2012

Dear caving friends,

The Euro Forum Speleo "Marbella 2011", organized by our federation, was very theoretical and very "sporting".

Now we want to invite you to participate in a speleological exploration and surveying camp in the province of Almeria: "International Cave-Survey Camp Topo Sorbas 2012"

This is one of the most singular places of Andalusia with a unique caves and one of the world famous gypsum karst by its singularity.

We want that everything works out the best and it is why we ask you to confirm us your intention to participate and, if possible, the number of people interested. At the moment is just an approximation to know what resources we have to mobilize. I remind you that this is an exploration and topography camp in gypsum caves.

Best regards
José A. Berrocal Pérez, Federación Andaluza de Espeleología

The Sinkhole Conference

We are excited and happy to announce that the website is up and the call for abstracts has begun for the 13th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst! More commonly called “The Sinkhole Conference,”

Since 1984 this excellent series of meetings has been pivotal in bringing together engineers, geologists, geophysicists, and regulators to exchange ideas and enhance everyone’s understanding of the challenges of living in karst areas.

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) is honored to have been given management of this conference series, and it still operated by the Organizing Committee made up of people who have hosted this conference for years, including representatives of sponsoring organizations like P.E. LaMoreaux and Associates, U.S. Geological Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, and many others. If your organization is interested in being a sponsor or exhibitor, please contact us.

The conference will be held in Carlsbad, New Mexico, at NCKRI Headquarters, on 6-10 May 2013. This is the most westerly venue for the conference to date, and an excellent opportunity for the field trip and sessions to focus on evaporite karst and karst management in arid environments, as well as the wide range of other topics.

You can access the website through the NCKRI website’s“Events” tab or directly at the conference website. To submit an abstract, click on “Call for Abstracts” in the upper right side of the home page. The abstract deadline is August 15th!

Over the next month or so we’ll add much more information to the website and begin registration. We’ll send another message at that time. Please share these messages with any you think may be interested.

If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know.

See you in Carlsbad in one year!

George Veni and Jim LaMoreaux
Co-chairman, 13th Sinkhole Conference

The Sinkhole Conference--Call for Papers

Dear Friends,

We are excited and happy to announce that the website is up and the call for abstracts has begun for the 13th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst! More commonly called “The Sinkhole Conference,” since 1984 this excellent series of meetings has been pivotal in bringing together engineers, geologists, geophysicists, and regulators to exchange ideas and enhance everyone’s understanding of the challenges of living in karst areas.

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) is honored to have been given management of this conference series, and it still operated by the Organizing Committee made up of people who have hosted this conference for years, including representatives of sponsoring organizations like P.E. LaMoreaux and Associates, U.S. Geological Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, and many others. If your organization is interested in being a sponsor or exhibitor, please contact us.

The conference will be held in Carlsbad, New Mexico, at NCKRI Headquarters, on 6-10 May 2013. This is the most westerly venue for the conference to date, and an excellent opportunity for the field trip and sessions to focus on evaporite karst and karst management in arid environments, as well as the wide range of other topics.

You can access the website through the NCKRI website’s “Events” tab at http://www.nckri.org or directly at http://sites.google.com/site/sinkholeconference2013/. To submit an abstract, click on “Call for Abstracts” in the upper right side of the home page. The abstract deadline is August 15th!

Over the next month or so we’ll add much more information to the website and begin registration. We’ll send another message at that time. Please share these messages with any you think may be interested.

If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know.

See you in Carlsbad in one year!
George Veni and Jim LaMoreaux
Co-chairman, 13th Sinkhole Conference
***************************
George Veni, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Cave and Karst Research Institute
400-1 Cascades Avenue
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220-6215 USA
Office: 575-887-5517
Mobile: 210-863-5919
Fax: 575-887-5523
[email protected]
http://www.nckri.org

Session submission in 34th Annual Conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group

Dear Colleges,
I send this message in order to inform you about our session submission in 34th TAG 2012.
We plan to submit a proposal for a half- day session under the topic:

The Morning Twilight of Cave Archaeology. Theoretical approaches and methodological perspectives in the Cave Archaeology of 21rst century.
If would you like to join in, please send an email with your paper’s title and short description (max 100 words) at [email protected] until the 20th of May 2012.

We will inform you about the abstract submission as soon as possible.

For any queries please drop a message in my academia/facebook account.

Kind regards,
Konstantinos Trimmis

Mountaineer heads line-up at Ingleton Overground Underground festival

Yorkshire mountaineer Alan Hinkes

A festival dedicated to exploring the joys of experiencing activities above and below ground will be held over eight days.

One of the high points of the Ingleton Overground Underground event, will take place over the Queen’s Jubilee weekend in June.

Yorkshire mountaineer Alan Hinkes will share his experiences of being the first Britain to climb the world’s highest mountains, one of only 12 people alive to have achieved this feat. He was named Yorkshireman of the Year in 2011.

The festival kicks off on Monday, May 28, and runs through until Monday, June 4 when it will conclude with the lighting of a beacon to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.

The events range from learning about the bats and moths that live in caves and a talk about Ingleton wildlife to having a go at climbing for beginners and getting a first time taste of caving.

There will also be a series of walks, including one to the shanty towns of Ribblehead, where printmaker Philippa Troutman will share the social history of the women, children and men who came to the area to build the Settle to Carlisle Railway in the 1870s.

SARDA members will give a rescue dog demonstration while members of the Clapham-based Cave Rescue Organisation will showcase their skills with a mock quarry face rescue.

Other highlights include a film made by Ingleton Primary School children as they climbed Ingleborough, a speleological art exhibition and taking part in a “blast” at Ingleton Quarry, A spokesman for the festival said: “The people and organisations of Ingleton and the surrounding area contribute in so many fantastic ways to make it all possible, through festival contributions, volunteering, sponsorship and moral support.”

The list of events is apublished in a special programme and tickets are available at Ingleton Tourist Information Centre, Ingleton Community Centre, Neptis coffee shop and by telephoning 015242 41843. It can also be downloaded from ogug.co.uk.

Source: Craven Herald

Quai Branly sheds further light on Chauvet cave art

Wall drawings of lions in the Chauvet cave complex

The Musée du Quai Branly, Paris’s museum of art and ethnography, has initiated a new cultural partnership with the Chauvet cave complex in the Pont d’Arc valley in Ardèche, southern France. The first exhibition under the new agreement is due to take place next May at the 17th-century Vogüé chateau in Ardèche.

Drawn from the Quai Branly’s permanent collection, the show will include religious and hunting objects. “This show is due to be the first [in the partnership] and will reflect the themes seen in the murals painted in the caves,” says a museum spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, the Quai Branly has beefed up its contemporary art programme with a major show on recent art’s relationship with shamanism opening this month as well as an important exhibition of Australian Aboriginal work of the 1970s, set to open in October.

As part of a cultural cooperation agreement with the National Museum of China in Beijing, a show focusing on Chinese dining traditions is due to open in June.

Source: The Art Newspaper

Philippine Cave congress opens in Roxas City

The 12th National Caving Congress officially opens in Capiz today.

Undersecretary Manuel D. Gerochi for Staff Bureaus and Project Management of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will grace the opening ceremonies of the week-long congress with the theme, “Strengthening Cave Conservation for Sustainable Eco-Tourism.”

Philippine Speleological Society, Inc. (PSSI) president Reynaldo Bagayas Jr. along with DENR 6 Regional Executive Director Julian D. Amador, Roxas City Mayor Angel Allan Celino, and Capiz Gov. Victor A. Tanco will greet participants during the opening ceremonies.

The program will also include a presentation on the updates on Cave Management Program in the Philippines that will be delivered by Protected Area and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) director Theresa Mundita S. Lim.

This year’s host of the congress will be the Western Visayas Caving Association (WVCA) in partnership with the DENR 6 and the Capiz provincial government.

The activity that will be attended by participants from all over the country representing the different outdoor and caving clubs which are members and non-members of the Philippine Speleological Society Inc. (PSSI), environmentalists, academe, and local government units, among others.

The Caving Association is one of the few organizations that formed the Speleological Society which is a non-stock, non-profit non-government organization and a national network of caving groups which has been very instrumental in the enactment of Republic Act 9072 or The Cave Resources Management and Protection Act.

The congress which started in 2001 promotes responsible caving through cave-related trainings and seminars. It also provides a platform for reviewing and assessing the ecological and environmental status of caves all throughout the country.

Source: PIA

3rd International Photography Contest of Cave Fauna and Flora

Organised by the "Grupo de Espeleología de Villacarrillo" (G.E.V.)

Objective: Encourage the diffusion and preservation of the subsurface environment ecosystems.

CONTEST RULES
Topic: Flora and Fauna of the caves
Number of Works: Unlimited
Modality and Technique: Free
Format: Digital image format whose minimun dimensions are 2000 x 2000 píxels.  Attach the image to a text document indicating the title, autor, email, address, group of speleology, name of the cavity, municipality, country, date of the image and national identity.
Jury: The jury will include members of the GEV. A dedicated jury, selected from the associations that offer the special awards will decide upon these. The jury’s decision is final.

Shipping: The pictures have to be sent to the email [email protected] with the subject “International Photography Contest”.

The photos that don’t meet the above characteristics and don’t have sufficient quality will be denied.

Exhibition: The best photos received will be displayed in the 8th Championship of Spain of T.P.V. of Speleology to take place on 13 and 14 October 2012 in Villacarrillo (Jaén).

The period is from April to the 23th September 2012.

All the photos can be published later in any of the blogs of the GEV and related works.

The same photography may not be awarded the Special Prize BIOSP, but can be eligible for the two other special awards. No rewards work that were awared in previous contests.

AWARDS
The International Awards of the Contest are:

• 1st Place:  € 250 plus the technical and scientific publications of the sponsors plus a discount voucher in HUMAVENTURA.
• 2nd Place:  € 150 plus the technical and scientific publications of the sponsors plus a discount voucher in HUMAVENTURA.
• 3rd Place:  € 50 plus the technical and scientific publications of the sponsors plus a discount voucher in HUMAVENTURA.

Special Award BIOSP: 100 € of the Asociación Catalana of Biospeleology plus the publications of the G.E.V.

Special Award “Spider of the Year”: Publications SEA and GIA, plus the publications of the G.E.V. Will be awared to the best picture of spiders of the caves of the genus Meta.

Special Award MVHN: Publications of the Museum Valencià d’Història Natural plus the publications of the G.E.V.

2012 NSS-CDS Workshop May 25-27

Bats to fill Omaha sky tonight

Go ahead, grab the kids and go batty tonight.

A colony of bats is being released from the Joslyn Art Museum Monday evening — an annual event that has become a family festival.

Families are invited to bring blankets and picnic baskets.

Informational tables and activities will be set up by 6:30 p.m. Live bats will be on display, too.

The release of the more than 200 bats will occur a little before 8 p.m., said Laura Stastny of Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, Inc. Take note of the time if you’ve been planning to attend. The bats are being released several minutes earlier than previously scheduled.

This is the third year for the release.

And these aren’t just any bats — they’re the ones that inadvertently tried to hibernate in homes or businesses and lived to beep about it.

Stasny said the bats have been collected over the course of the winter from a variety of places by both Nebraska Wildlife Rehab and the Nebraska Humane Society. She estimates that more than 75 percent came from Omaha buildings east of 60th Street .

That’s the reason the bats are being released from the Joslyn, she said, because it places them close to their normal haunts.

They are a species commonly called Big Brown Bat because they’re larger than most bats. Still, they’re only 4 or 5 inches long and weigh less than an ounce.

Once released, the nocturnal species will flock around the Joslyn for a while and then head out for a night of freedom and feeding.

Note to moths, wasps and other flying insects: This will not be a good night to hang out near the Joslyn.

Source: Omaha World Herald