Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home/isthin5/public_html/addon-domains/speleogenesis.info/template/toolbar_left.php on line 5
Hello everyone!
I pleased to invite you to the official site of Central Asian Karstic-Speleological commission ("Kaspeko")
There, we regularly publish reports about our expeditions, articles and reports on speleotopics, lecture course for instructors, photos etc. ...
Dear Colleagues, This is to draw your attention to several recent publications added to KarstBase, relevant to hypogenic karst/speleogenesis: Corrosion of limestone tablets in sulfidic ground-water: measurements and speleogenetic implications Galdenzi,
A recent publication of Spanish researchers describes the biology of Krubera Cave, including the deepest terrestrial animal ever found:
Jordana, Rafael; Baquero, Enrique; Reboleira, Sofía and Sendra, Alberto. ...
Exhibition dedicated to caves is taking place in the Vienna Natural History Museum
The exhibition at the Natural History Museum presents the surprising variety of caves and cave formations such as stalactites and various crystals. ...
Did you know?
That C-horizon is zone of weathered parent material in a soil profile [16].?
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /home/isthin5/public_html/addon-domains/speleogenesis.info/template/toolbar_right.php on line 7
Search KARSTBASE:
KarstBase a bibliography database in karst and cave science.
Featured articles from Cave & Karst Science Journals
This new, albinistic and anophtalmous Bragasellus has been collected in the waters of the Cova del Infierno ("Hell Cave") near Covadonga, province of Asturias, Northwestern Spain.
The great groundwater basins of North Africa and Arabia extend over an area of some 6.5 million square kilometres. Gradients on the isopiezometric surfaces of their confined ground-waters are generally interpreted as indicating present-day flow of groundwater. Can such flow occur in basins where most or all of the groundwater is fossil and where effective infiltration and recharge may have ceased some 10 000 years ago? Assuming that there is indeed no current recharge in these arid and sem-arid regions, the paper identifies seven groups totalling 12 possible mechanisms which can contribute in varying degrees to maintaining flow of groundwater long after effective recharge has ceased. These are: (i) Residual heads; (ii) Tilting of basin; (iii) Compaction effects, in terms of sediment loading, basalt loading and water loading/unloading; (iv) Thermal drive; (v) Gas drive; (vi) Lowering of discharge level, by tectonic displacement, by pressure bursts and by collapse of cover; and (vii) Evaporation in the discharge zone, such as lowering of lake levels and evaporation from sabkhas. Nine additional mechanisms were considered but rejected. Combinations of these mechanisms can produce heads inducing flow of fossil groundwater, but appear to be insufficient to account for present hydraulic regimes without some current surface recharge. The findings have direct application to studies leading to the development, use and management of these major water resources of the arid zones of the Sahara and Arabia
The paper gives a description of a new, unpigmented and anophtalmous species of Bragasellus collected in Calderòn Cave, Vellia de Carriòn, Palencia Province, Northern Spain (hydrographic basin of Douro River).
Since 1971 speleological and paleontological investigations have been carried out in the quarry "Hollitzer" which is in the Pfaffenberg near Bad Deutsch Altenburg (Hainburger Berge, Lower Austria). Evident karst phenomena are missing at the surface, but the existence of caves filled with sediments in the quarry show that the area is a fossil buried karst. A steady scientific survey allowed the study of the karstic phenomena without hindering the work in the quarry. Up to now more than 150 cavities have been discovered. Most of them seem to belong to a unique solutional system; corrasive forms are missing. Fossils (Gasteropoda, Amphibia, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been found in more than twenty cave fills. The oldest findings can be dated from the middle to the recent Pliocene (Csarnotanum), the more recent ones to the older Pleistocene (Villanyium; Biharium) the material is well preserved. Its variety in species and individuals as well as the possibility for a biostratigraphical evaluation makes the findings of Pfaffenberg a particular source for the above mentioned periods. The investigations are still continuing.
Speagonum mirabile gen. et sp. n. and Gastragonum caecum sp. n. are described as troglobites from caves in the Behrman Mountains of west New Guinea; Pseudozaena (Trichozaena subgen. n.) cavicola sp. n. is a troglophile from New Ireland.
Water samples taken from a spring and six locations on the stream fed by it were analysed in order to determine the factors responsible for the deposition of tufa along the channel. The spring water, whilst carrying a large quantity of dissolved carbonates, proved to be almost at equilibrium with calcite. The considerable amount of dissolved carbon dioxide necessary for such a load to be carried underwent rapid degassing after emergence of the water. In consequence, about one quarter of the initial load of dissolved carbonate was deposited in the first 430m of subaerial flow. This deposition did not however keep pace with the degassing of CO2, and calcite supersaturation increased progressively downstream.
Water Vapour determines the volume percentage of component gases in cave atmospheres. This is particularly significant in foul air caves where carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations are measured and used to diagnose foul air types. The variation in atmospheric composition brought about by systematic change in carbon dioxide and oxygen levels is examined and shown on the Gibbs triangle. The current three foul air types are readily identifiable in this visualisation of data, and the boundaries of these types are mapped. Further, these diverse data can be combined into a Cave Air Index by which foul air atmospheres may be assigned to type in a rapid and objective manner. The use of these concepts in evaluation of published data on Wellington and Bungonia Caves and with mine and soil data is shown.
