Karst Worlds

Explos Film Festival 2013

2013-04-21T07:26:00.002+02:00

8 To 12th May Ax les Thermes, Ariège Pyrénées

First Barcelona Technical & Cave Diving Conference: BCN TEK 2013

2013-04-21T07:05:00.000+02:00

On 18th & 19th May, the First Barcelona Technical & Cave Diving Conference will take place focusing on cave diving explorations.

Topics presented include :

recent explorations at the terminal sumps of Sistema Huautla -1545m (Mexico)
Pozo Azul (over 9km diving distance)
Lamina'ko Ziloa (Saint Georges system resurgence in the Pyrenees)
Fuentona de Muriel, Escuain, Cotiella, also explorations in Portugal and Bosnia, ...

Click on the image on the left for the full details about the talks.

More information can be found on the BCN TEK 2013 facebook group, subscription form can be downloaded here.

Amazing Wingsuit Jump Through Narrow Cave at 155 mph

2013-04-19T07:24:00.000+02:00

"Wingsuit / BASE-jump athlete Alexander Polli does a tactical flight through a narrow cave on a rugged mountainside. The flight starts with a jump from a hovering helicopter, Alexander reaches speeds of 250 km/h (155 mph) while following a precise trajectory leading to the cave opening, he then fully commits and flies directly through the narrow opening of the "Batman Cave!"

Shot in full HD, this extraordinary flight exceeds the level of commitment most fliers would ever consider—there can be no attempting, the only option is success!

The narrow cave, no wider than Alexander is tall, is located in Roca Foradada Mountains in Montserrat, Spain—a location that has inspired this professional Italian Norwegian athlete's flying dream his whole life. Alexander hopes his success will inspire others not only to 'climb over their mountains,' but to also fly right through them!"

Video from: www.epictv.com

Technique Video: Occam Releasable Anchor

2013-04-18T07:28:00.001+02:00

This anchor was developed for use in Canyoneering when you are forced to tie two ropes together to complete a rappel. Specifically, for first descents with unknown rappel lengths.

Cave Depth Record Achieved Using KISS Rebreather

2013-04-16T07:09:00.000+02:00

Expedition diver Jason Mallinson describes a record-setting dive into the Western Hemisphere’s deepest cave, using the Classic KISS rebreather.

Mexico’s Sistema Huautla is perhaps one of the most complex of the world’s deep caves. With 17 entrances and numerous independent and physically demanding deep routes, dropping nearly a mile into the earth, this dark labyrinth requires extensive rope work and multiple days of effort to reach the lower depths of the system. The last extension to the cave took place in 1994, when Dr William Stone used his self-designed CIS Lunar rebreather to pass what was then considered the terminal sump. Staging their dive from a portable platform suspended over a pool of water, the transiting a flooded tunnel and went on to discovered some 3.3km (2 miles) of new passage, but were ultimately stopped by Sump 9.(...)

Discovery of longest lava cave in Southeast Asia

2013-04-16T01:00:00.000+02:00

A system of lava caves including one considered as the longest lava cave of Southeast Asia has been discovered in the southern province of Dong Nai, according to researcher Truong Ba Vuong of the Viet Nam's Institute of Tropical Biology.

Researchers from the institute and Germany have surveyed and discovered the system of 11 caves for two months and found the caves formed after an eruption.

The longest cave found is Doi (Bat) Cave which is separated by a geological collapse and rupture that created two additional caves called Bat Cave 1 and Bat Cave 2. The largest section of the cave is about 426m long, 4m high and 10m wide. The explorers consider it as the longest lava cave in Southeast Asia as Gua Lawah Cave in Indonesia, the current longest one, is 400m long.

In some lava caves, researchers discovered many species of animals such as bats, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, cave crickets, flies, ferrets and frogs.

German scientists intend to publish these findings in English, including maps and descriptions of the cave complex, in publications of the Berlin Speleoclub.

The local authorities have called the people to be aware of protecting the complex and stop catching bats in the cave to preserve ecological environment of the site.

Source: VNS

21 st International Karstological School: Classical Karst: Hypogene Speleogenesis (Between theory and reality...)

2013-04-15T07:14:00.000+02:00

Since 1993, International Karstological Schools have been organised, covering many aspects of karst research. The basic idea of the School has been to present the state of the art in selected topics and promote discussion between participants via set of lectures, poster sessions and related field trips to the area of Slovene Classical karst.

In the last decade, hypogene speleologenetic processes have attracted attention of speleological community. Many previously epigenic caves have been reinterpreted as hypogene. Some basic publications on the topic have triggered doubts and debates because similar cave patterns and wall rock features considered as hypogene can be formed also under other conditions. Therefore, the aim of the 21'st IKS is to present basic hydrogeological and chemical principles and processes of hypogene speleogenesis as well as geological conditions leading to it. Special attention will be paid to the geometry of cave passages and wall rock features which are often interpreted as hypogene, but could have as well formed otherwise, such as in meteoric flood-water conditions or by dissolution in contact with sediment.

Info: http://iks.zrc-sazu.si/en/

The participants will get answers to the following questions:

what is the hypogene speleogenesis,
which are typical and necessary geological conditions for the hypogene speleogenesis,
which physicochemical processes are important for the hypogene speleogenesis
which forms are characteristic only for the hypogene speleogenesis
how to distinguish hypogenetic and epigenetic caves

The work will include

Invited keynote lectures covering wide range of topic
selected lectures by other participants
poster presentations
fieldwork

The topics will cover

hypogene speleogenesis (hydrogeology, chemistry, geology and forms)
similarities and distinction between hypogenic and epigenic caves
hypogene speleogensis in gypsum
speogenesis in artesian basins
thermal and hydrothermal caves
minerals related to hypogene speleogenesis

Swiss caver rescued after days in water-filled cavern

2013-04-12T07:19:00.000+02:00

A Swiss caver trapped in a water-filled cavern since Wednesday was freed late Friday by a rescue team using divers.

The man, identified as a local resident named Roland Geiser, was pulled from the Cascade cave near Motiers in western Switzerland in good health.

He had become trapped while caving solo on Wednesday when suddenly rising waters -- common this time of year with melting snow -- flooded his exit tunnel. He took refuge in a niche above the water.

Authorities deployed 15 cavers to rescue him, including three divers. They kept him supplied with food and warm clothes while preparing to bring him to the surface.

Source: Speleo Secours Suisse

Cave Dwelling Nettle Discovered in China

2012-12-28T20:30:00.000+01:00

Flowers of a new species from the nettle family known
only from caves, Pilea cavernicola, where it grows in very
low light conditions.

South West China, Myanmar and Northern Vietnam contain one of the oldest exposed outcrops of limestone in the world. Within this area are thousands of caves and gorges. It is only recently that botanists have sought to explore the caves for plants. This exploration is yielding many new species new to science, that are known only from these habitats.

The current study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Kew botanist and nettle expert Alex Monro says, "When my Chinese colleague Wei Yi-Gang from the Guangxi Institute of Botany first mentioned cave-dwelling plants to me, I thought that he was mis-translating a Chinese word into English. When we stepped into our first cave, Yangzi cave, I was spell-bound. It had an eerie moonscape look to it and all I could see were clumps of plants in the nettle family growing in very dark condition."

The plants do not grow in complete darkness but do grow in extremely low light levels, deep within the entrance caverns of the caves (sometimes, in as little as 0.04% full sunlight). The British and Chinese authors have been collecting plants from the Nettle family in this limestone landscape for several years and have just published a paper describing three new species, one from a cave and another two from deep gorges.

The cave-dwelling nettle species in question, was found growing in two caves in the Guangxi province of China. Of the species discovered in gorges, one is known from an unusual and striking rock mineral formation called petaloid travertine. Petaloid travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs that over time forms large petals of rock, in this case clinging to the vertical walls of a gorge.

These plants are members of a genus of Nettles known as Pilea, that is believed to have over 700 species Worldwide, up to one third of which may remain undescribed.

Journal Reference:
Alex Monro, Y.G. Wei, C.J. Chen. Three new species of Pilea (Urticaceae) from limestone karst in China. PhytoKeys, 2012; 19 (0): 51 DOI:10.3897/phytokeys.19.3968

Secret caves in Cape York reveal fossilised snake skeletons and link to Dreamtime

2012-12-28T09:11:00.003+01:00

Model of a giant snake known as a madstsoiid

Giant fossilised snake skeletons found on Cape York have unearthed new links to the Dreamtime myth of the Rainbow Serpent.

Fragments of the giant prehistoric snakes, known by the scientific term madtsoiids, that once stalked the Earth have been found by cavers and scientists in the secret "fossil gold mines" of the state's deep north.

Dated back to the Pleistocene epoch, between 2 million and 11,700 years ago, the fossils are believed to be akin to a constricting python, a predator that grew up to 7m long and as thick as a telegraph pole.

Experts question if the giant snakes intersected with the arrival of the earliest humans and if the extinct creature is the latest clue into the mystery of the popular Dreaming story of Australian Aborigines.

The Rainbow Serpent is a story of creation, where a creature of immense proportions moulded the barren earth into mountains, rivers and gorges as it moved across the featureless land.

Dr Gilbert Price, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland, is working with a team of 10 fellow scientists dedicated to solving the prehistoric puzzle of north Queensland.

"There is so much cool stuff out there that can inform us about past life and climate change," Dr Price said.

Dr Gilbert Price with fossils recovered from
a remote cave site in far north Queensland,
west of Townsville.

"It is only a matter of time before we identify entirely new creatures."

Dr Price has obtained specimens of the quinkana, an extinct land-based crocodile; a giant carnivorous kangaroo, propleopus Chillagoensis; the 3000kg rhinoceros wombat, diprotodon; giant flightless birds; and carnivorous marsupials such as a Tasmanian tiger once the size of a female African lion.

Some are preserved in stunning detail, including a fossilised crocodile skull in Tea-Tree cave, the best of its type in Australia, and skeletons of giant Pleistocene snakes that may be the precursor to the Rainbow Serpent myth.

"It is a bit of a tenuous link between the fossil record, Rainbow Serpent and earliest humans," Dr Price said.

He said previous finds of a giant snake, wonambi, were extinct at least 20,000 years before the first humans turned up in Australia, with no evidence of an overlap "either in time or space with the big guy".

Dr John Scanlon, who found two prehistoric snakes, including Yurlunggur at Riversleigh in the Gulf Country and described them in Nature in 2006, said it was tantalising to think of more snake fossil records turning up.

"Serpent myths are universal, but whatever way you look at it, the world was a far more interesting place with giant snakes in it."

More than 600 cave systems have been "tagged" in the Chillagoe area, west of Cairns.

The longest surveyed cave is 14km long and the deepest is 100m underground, but there are thousands more north and south.

It is a series of sink holes and chasms extending more than 600km on what is reputedly a 350 million-year-old fault line from Laura on Cape York to south of Greenvale, west of Townsville.

Sometimes the caves open up into daylight sections, where a hole has broken open on the ceiling and collapsed, and shards of light spark rainbows off stalagmites and stalactites as if in a coloured Cathedral.It is a Lost World: An awesome subterranean wonderland. Jagged chunks of limestone jut out of the ancient sea-bed plains and extend deep underground in a three-dimensional maze of passages, tunnels and shafts.

Under these daylight holes, are often "bone sinks", where creatures have fallen in and died and are found in layers in the sediment, dating back at least 100,000 years.

These are the secret fossil "gold mines" of outback north Queensland.

To a tight-knit clan of scientists, cavers and indigenous elders it is obvious why exact locations of some sites must be kept secret.

Winfried Weiss, of the Chillagoe Caving Club, said: "Fossils are big business. Imagine how much a fossilised crocodile skull would be worth?"

"It is kept a secret because a lot of these fossil sites are extremely delicate.

"If the location gets publicised, they might be disturbed by amateurs or treasure hunters looking for commercial gain. There are also sacred aboriginal sites to be respected.

"We've known about the sites of the giant wombats, giant kangaroos and crocodile skull for about 60 years but have kept it a secret.

"We don't want to disturb the scientific potential this place has to tell us about the past."

In the jungles of South America, about 58 million years ago, a giant snake, weighing more than a tonne and 14-m long stalked the Earth,.

Named Titanoboa, the colossal reptile found in Columbia in 2002 could swallow a crocodile whole without showing a bulge.

After the extinction of the dinosaurs, it was the largest apex predator on the surface of the planet for about 10 million years.

Source: Courier Mail

Video: Underground river system of Bramabiau, Farnce

2012-12-27T01:30:00.000+01:00

The underground river system of Bramabiau in the Gard region in France, by Victor Ferrer. Spanish audio, subtitles in French.

Oakman hosts search and rescue training

2012-12-27T00:30:00.000+01:00

The local area Georgia Search and Rescue (GSAR) Taskforce 6 recently held emergency training in Oakman to learn new techniques, and to get refreshment on previous training.

Taskforce 6 is a GSAR group that is comprised of seven different counties in the Northwest Georgia region.

“This is the first year we did search and rescue training, and some of these guys have never really been tested on the ability to search and rescue in our area,” Director of Gordon County Emergency Management Agency Richard Cooper said.

The training started at 6 a.m. and lasted until 2 p.m. Some of the training the taskforce went over consisted of tornado situations, locating a GPS spot, finding victims and bringing them from the woods and also extracting someone from a cave using a haul system, according to Cooper.

Cooper said the taskforce has been set up for about five years now and is funded by grants. He also added that the taskforce is comprised of firefighters, and on top of the training received to become a firefighter there also has to be 500 hours of additional training to become part of Taskforce 6.

“This was a big success, and it gave our guys some a wonderful opportunity to explore and get experience with our terrain,” Cooper said. “It was wonderful to see them shine doing the job that they had to do.”

Source: Calhoun Times

2013 WKU/Mammoth Karst Field Studies Program

2012-12-26T22:36:00.000+01:00

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 leslie.north@wku.edu.

Shippensburg university to host 2013 national caving convention

2012-12-26T18:53:00.000+01:00

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.”

Hurst said society conventions are held at different sites each year, and despite this area’s caves being smaller than those in other parts of the country, Shippensburg has plenty to offer.

“Pennsylvania does have caves, just not the huge ones like at Luray, where a room could be 100-feet high,” Hurst said.

Patrick Minnick, secretary of the Franklin County Grotto of the society, agrees.

“Pennsylvania is not without caves,” he said. “Caves in Pennsylvania tend to be a little smaller — (but) Pennsylvania has attractive and beautiful caves.”

Minnick said cave temperatures in Pennsylvania usually range from 52-54 degrees with humidity levels at nearly 100 percent.

“It tends to be muddy,” he said.

Activities at the 2013 convention will include trips to Peiper’s and Carneige caves.

“They are both well-known caves that have a lot of traffic,” Minnick said.

Carneige Cave in Southampton Township is unique because it must be accessed through a tunnel.

“When they built Interstate 81, they were going to blast it shut,” Hurst said. “The York Grotto petitioned PennDOT to save it, not only for cavers, but also because bats live in there, and that was natural habitat for them.”

A culvert was built under the highway to save the cave.

“You have to crawl under the interstate to get into the cave,” Hurst said.

The convention’s agenda also includes trips to other area caves and sessions on a variety of topics, and Hurst is working to arrange side trips to nearby attractions, such as Gettysburg.

“We’ll have 1,000 people here, and we’ll need things for them to do,” he said. “Sometimes, people stay (longer) and make it a vacation. They bring the whole family.”

With 1,000 visitors spending a week in Shippensburg, Hurst said he believes the convention will be a real plus for the local economy.

“Lots of money will be spent,” he said. “People will be coming to town during a week when school is out. It’s a great opportunity for local businesses.”

Convention activities are open only to cavers who have registered. To register for the conference, or for more information on caving, visit www.caves.org.

The website says the society has more than 10,000 members and 250 grottoes.

Minnick said the three most important things to remember when caving are safety (having the proper gear), conservation (not destroying any cave formations) and land owner relations (because most caves in Pennsylvania are on private property).

Source: The Sentinel

CSIRO use 3D mapping to explore Koonalda Cave in South Australia

2012-12-25T15:11:00.000+01:00

Mapping the Koonalda Cave with the new
technology will preserve its delicate surface.

World-first 3D mapping technology is creating a new wave of cave exploration, giving researchers and the public unprecedented access to sites of global significance.

CSIRO researchers used the new 3D mapping technology to explore the Koonalda Cave in South Australia, near the western border, for the SA Museum earlier this month.

The delicate site in the Nullarbor Regional Reserve, closed to the public, was used as a flint mine by Aboriginal people between about 30,000 and 10,000 years ago.

They left strange markings, called finger flutings, in the soft limestone walls by dragging their hands along established grooves.

Archaeologist Dr Keryn Walshe from the SA Museum says she wants to work out who made the finger flutings - men, women or children - but they are so fragile they crumble at the slightest touch.

"It is really tempting; it is really hard, actually, not to touch this soft surface because it's so inviting," she said.

"It's this beautiful pure white colour, it's like snow. It looks so lovely and soft you just want to touch it to see what it's like, but you mustn't."

Now researchers can analyse the 3D model from the comfort of their laboratory in Adelaide, using computer software or physical reconstructions of the cave created using 3D printers.

"It's a fantastic research tool, the fact that we can use the models in the lab when we have really good light and good conditions to work under, whereas in the cave, because it's in complete darkness, it's really hard to do the research," Dr Walshe said.

CSIRO scientists invented the technology, called Zebedee. It is licensed to UK start-up company GeoSLAM and global distributor 3D Laser Mapping.

The Zebedee system consists of a lightweight laser scanner mounted on a simple spring mechanism.

It bobs around as the operator moves through the area under investigation, converting 2D measurements into 3D fields of view.

It's thought to be the world's first truly mobile, hand-held, rapid laser mapping system.

The project is featured in the current issue of New Scientist magazine.

Source: Adelaide Now

3D Laser Mapping Launches Mobile Indoor Mapping System

2012-12-25T15:01:00.000+01:00

Zebedee is a hand-held mapping device designed to be used both indoors and for forestry and other outdoor applications where GPS cannot be used. 3D Laser Mapping is licensing the technology from a UK start-up called GeoSLAM, after it was initially developed by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO .

Zebedee arose out of CSIRO's need to map a set of caves. "Nothing motivates researchers more than inconvenience. And carrying a large stick with a motor and a battery and a computer on a trolley and abseiling into a cave system was just not feasible," explained Elliot Duff, an expert in robotics at the Australian agency. This led him and his colleagues to develop a system that uses "human motion - or passive actuation - to drive the motor of the sensor, not a machine."

Zebedee uses the environment to calculate trajectory; the lidar becomes a trajectory sensor, comparing the trajectories of sets of features. The accuracy of the whole system is dependent both on the accuracy of the laser scanner and the feature-richness of the environment (e.g. mapping a long, featureless corridor or room is problematic).

Scan data is currently processed offline via Dropbox. "Our intention in future is to make it online real-time, so maps are actually created, too, whilst you're walking round the environment," said Duff. "That has applications for first responders, emergency services and security."

Video: Cave diving in Roubidoux Spring

2012-12-24T15:32:00.000+01:00

Probably the most popular cave dive is in Roubidoux Spring, Waynesville (Mo).

Roubidoux Spring is open to certified cavern/cave divers who must check in and present their cave/cavern certification card to the officials in the 911 Emergency Center prior to diving. The center is located adjacent to the Fire Station on top of the hill off Highway 66 just east of downtown. There is no diving fee or permit required. Be sure to sign out after diving!

More information on the exploration of this cave can be found here.

Karst-O-Rama 2013

2012-12-23T22:34:00.000+01:00

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

Therion 5.3.11 released

2012-12-23T20:29:00.001+01:00

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

A new version (5.3.11) 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.

The latest version includes following additions/bug fixes:

Therion:

Added:

survey option for map for setting survey associated with map.For example all surveying statistics from this survey will be used, when this map is selected for output.
added sketch-colors <number-of-colors> option to thconfig file,to reduce size of sketch bitmap images in maps
hide symbol from legend, if it has explicitly empty translation
survey-level works for point station-name labels, if station name is automatically determined (no -text is specified)
symbol-show|hide group text for point label, remark, date and line label
grid-angle <value> <units> - can be used in centerline to specify magnetic grid angle (declination against grid north).
-cs output specification works for export cave-list (including lat-long)
dates are shown using OS locale settings in map export
layout statistics explo/topo-length on/hide/off -- if it is off, team members are sorted alphabetically
KML export format supported for cave-list and continuation-list

Bugs fixed:

PLT export in output coordinate system
context point air-draught not working
instrument position in centerline does not work
debug scrap-names crashes if empty scraps
counter not working in centerline data diving
revise not working outside of survey context
wrong length/depth and other statistics calculation for map output
sketch bitmaps inserted multiple times in PDF files

Xtherion:
Bugs fixed:

new file in xtherion works, even if file is already open

Buddha did not rest in Bhagava cave

2012-12-21T21:59:00.000+01:00

There is no proper evidence to confirm that the Bhagava cave is the place where the Buddha rested after placing His footprint on the top of the Sri Pada, Archaeological Director General Senerath Dissanayake said. He further said that, the Bhagava cave is rich in Buddhist history.

There are three epigraphs at the site. Two of them were written by King Nissankamalla. The third one was written in Arabic by Ibn Battuta. Nissankamalla is the king who kept the largest number of epigraphs.

However there is nothing mentioned in these epigraphs that the Bhagava cave was the place where the Buddha rested with monks after placing His footprint on the top of the Sri Pada.

The Director General was addressing a press conference at the Archeological Department yesterday.

The Buddha arrived in the country on three occasions. On His third arrival, he placed his footprint on the Sri Pada peak, he said. Deepawansa, Mahawansa and Saraththappakasiniya provide evidence, that the Buddha placed his footprint on the Sri Pada peak. Other than that, Chinese monk Fahien has provided evidence that, the mountain contains the Buddha’s footprint.

The Moggallana Mahawansa (Cambodia Mahawansa) has confirmed that, after placing His footprint on Sri Pada the Buddha stayed and rested at the bottom of the Sri Pada mountain.

However, there is no evidence that this resting place was Divaguhawa, he said. The Bhagava cave is an ancient and historical Buddhist site. The word Bhagava is there in one of the epigraphs, he said. The place where the Buddha rested, should be seen at the bottom of the Sri Pada according to historical chronicle. The Bhagava cave is not situated at the bottom of Sri Pada. In the Bhagava cave, there is no adequate space for resting for the Buddha and His retinue, he explained. Batatota, Bhagava and Kuragala caves are considered as Divaguhava, he said.

Prof T G Kulathunga said, all caves in the Sri Pada mountain are Buddhists sites. These are national heritage sites. Ven Matara Ananda Sagara Thera, Prof Raj Somadeva and Prof Gamini Adhikari also spoke.

Source: Daily News

Christmas party held 200ft underground in Mendip Hills cave

2012-12-21T14:21:00.000+01:00

The Christmas party at Frozen Deep

These potholers really know how to ‘get down’ and party after holding their Christmas bash 200ft underground – in Britain’s largest cave.

The group – called The Tuesday Diggers – decided to hold their annual festive party in a massive cavern they discovered in September.

A gruelling hour-long descent led the five revellers to the Frozen Deep, a 98ft-high, 200ft-long chamber in the Mendip Hills, near Cheddar, Somerset.

The pals lugged Christmas decorations, party hats, food, mulled wine and even a Christmas tree through 150ft of narrow rock passageways to liven up the cave.

Caver Martin Grass said: ‘It was definitely the most interesting Christmas party I have ever been to."

Source: This is Somerset

Researchers find link between bats and treatment of human diseases

2012-12-20T21:44:00.000+01:00

Dr Chris Cowled hard at work

The Bat Pack, a team of researchers at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, conduct a wide range of research into bats and bat borne viruses, and their potential effects on the human population, as part of the effort to safeguard Australia from exotic and emerging pests and diseases.

Their paper, published today in the journal Science, provides an insight into the evolution of the bat’s flight, resistance to viruses, and relatively long life.

The Bat Pack, in collaboration with the Beijing Genome Institute, led a team that sequenced the genomes of two bat species – the Black Flying Fox, an Australian mega bat, and the David’s Myotis, a Chinese micro bat.

Once the genomes were sequenced, they compared them to the genomes of other mammals, including humans, to find where the similarities and differences lay.

Chris Cowled, post-doctoral fellow at AAHL says the research may eventually lead to strategies to treat, or even prevent disease in humans.

“A deeper understanding of these evolutionary adaptations in bats may lead to better treatments for human diseases, and may eventually enable us to predict or perhaps even prevent outbreaks of emerging bat viruses,” Dr Cowled said.

“Bats are a natural reservoir for several lethal viruses, such as Hendra, Ebola and SARS, but they often don’t succumb to disease from these viruses. They’re also the only mammal that can fly, and they live a long time compared to animals similar in size.”

“What we found intriguing was that some of these genes also have secondary roles in the immune system,” Dr Cowled said.Flying is a very energy intensive activity that also produces toxic by-products, and bats have developed some novel genes to deal with the toxins. Some of these genes, including P53, are implicated in the development of cancer or the detection and repair of damaged DNA.

“We’re proposing that the evolution of flight led to a sort of spill over effect, influencing not only the immune system, but also things like ageing and cancer.”

The research was a global effort involving the Beijing Genome Institute in Shenzhen, China; Australia’s national science research agency, the CSIRO; the University of Copenhagen; Wuhan Institute of Virology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; the Naval Medical Research Center and Henry M. Jackson Foundation in the USA; Uniformed Services University, USA; and the Graduate Medical School at the Duke-National University of Singapore.

Scientific paper:
Comparative Analysis of Bat Genomes Provides Insight into the Evolution of Flight and Immunity,
Guojie Zhang, et al., Science 1230835 Published online 20 December 2012 [DOI:10.1126/science.1230835]

Local Cave Rescue Alerted for Doomsday

2012-12-19T21:12:00.000+01:00

Concerned French authorities have started to keep an eye on the town of Bugarach, which according to esoterics will be the only place on our planet Earth to survive December 21, 2012, Doomsday, according to a Mayan calendar.

All access roads are controlled by police and the local cave rescue section is taking measures to prevent accidents from people goint into the large cave systems located inside the mountain.

Source: Le Figaro

More information on why this town may be the only one spare can be found here.

Call for abstracts -- National Cave and Karst Management Symposium

2012-12-19T20:32:00.000+01:00

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.

Please note the following deadlines. They are a little earlier than usual for NCKMS because by popular demand we plan to have the proceedings ready in time for distribution at the symposium, instead of after which has been the norm.

-- March 15, 2013: Abstract due
-- April 1, 2013: Authors notified of abstract acceptance
-- June 1, 2013: Draft manuscripts due
-- August 14, 2013: Authors provided with review and comments
-- September 9, 2013: Final papers due

Anyone needing financial assistance to attend NCKMS, especially students, are encouraged to apply for a George N. Huppert Scholarship. For information about the scholarship and how to apply, visit: http://nckms.org/scholar.shtml

On-line registration for the conference will be posted soon.

For information on other conferences hosted by NCKRI, visit: http://nckri.org/events/conference.html.

Source: George Veni, Ph.D.

New paper on karstic flow conduits

2012-12-18T15:36:00.000+01:00

A new paper is published in the current issue of "Speleogenesis and Evolution of karst aquifers":

Boudinet, P. 2012. A statistical model of karstic flow conduits.

Speleogenesis & Evolution of Karst Aquifers, 12: 9-16

A statistical model of karstic flow conduits, based on statistical physics of random walks, is developed. It allows us to compute the mean depth of flow conduits versus the distance from the inlet and versus the dip. It provides results that are in good qualitative agreement with previous results of other authors: the mean depth increases, slowly, with the distance, and it increases, not in a regular fashion, with the dip. The variability of the depth of the conduits, possibly leading to some conduits far from the water table, and the fact that well developed conduits are scarce or not, is linked to the probability of exploitation of the different fractures, the potentially permeable bedding planes, faults and joints in the karstifiable rock. On the basis of this result, we propose that interesting cavities - from the point of view of caving and cave diving - are found only in a small range of those exploitation probabilities. Finally, we emphasize the non-euclidean properties of flow conduits; especially, that many shortest pathways may exist and that a straight line is not usually the shortest pathway that actually develops between inlet and outlet.

To download the full paper, please, follow this link:

http://www.speleogenesis.info/journal/publication.php?id=11251