Caving - Science topic

Looking at the images, there are a fair few bricks along the edge. Suggests that there was some attempt to built a retaining wall along the edge of the road. Probably founded on poorly compacted fill. The rain has caused this to slump or scour away causing the loss of support to the road. This then becomes a slip failure due to loss of support.

Hand packing is a common method for dry packing powder into a column, but it can result in uneven packing and lead to issues like caving in of the column. To achieve more uniform packing of the Pt-Alumina powder, you could try the following alternative methods:

Overall, the choice of the most appropriate method will depend on various factors such as the column size, the powder properties, and the available equipment. It is important to carefully control the packing conditions to achieve a uniform and dense packing of the powder.

dear Anna,

in this issue "Migration Status of Bats in Ukraine" there is very interesting article by Tomasz Postawa "Migration activity of bats during hibernation"

Tomasz use loggers "OSNET". for details ask him: Tomasz Postawa

It refers to cooperation agreements between the state and the private sector for the provision of public services. By combining the social function of the state and the profit motivation of the private sector, it provides rapid implementation of a large number of projects in the public interest. Corruption is the most discussed issue about this cooperation.

Dear prof. Raul Perez-Lopez,

we have developed portable CCC-based muon detectors for speleological applications in Wigner RCP, Budapest, Hungary. If you are interested in the application of this technology, please feel free to contact me. My e-mail address is the following: olah.laszlo@wigner.mta.hu

Best regards,

Laszlo Olah

Yes that is true, Thanks a lot Luigi Moroni

appreciate it.

If it's a Heterophrynus armiger, it could be the first record in Peru?:

What do you think José A. Ochoa ?

Nice! It's good to talk with someone with different experience in the same research line...

In my study site, wonderfully and peculiarly, there are so many ... but so many caves. that there are no patterns. Moreover, the dominance of a few common and too many rare species made the beta diversity equivalent to turnover and complementarity (Cardos et al., 2012). Combined with the intense nocturnal visitation is as if all caves were one. Like a complex network linking different species, their behaviors, among various food availabilities, competition intensities, and so on...

In fact, these are the same variables that you will analyze right? How are you thinking to colect this data? I always take into thinking that to spend time and money to limit other features (besides the cave), I need to know how the dynamics of it all works. Sorry, I sometimes get excited!

We do speleothem dating at MIT by both the U-series method (McGee Lab) and the U-Pb method (Bowring Lab). It is the isotope dilution technique using a combination of MC-ICPMS and TIMS instruments.

Cordyceps sinensis was shown in 2007 by nuclear DNA sampling to be unrelated to most of the rest of the members of the genus; as a result it was renamed Ophiocordyceps sinensis and placed in a new family, the Ophiocordycipitaceae, as was the "Cordyceps unilateralis" Other species previously included in the genus Cordyceps have now been placed in the genus Tolypocladium.[citation needed]

Cordyceps and Metacordyceps spp. are now thought to be the teleomorphs of a number of anamorphic, entomopathogenic fungus "genera" such as: Beauveria (Cordyceps bassiana), Lecanicillium, Metarhizium and Nomuraea.[citation needed]

When a Cordyceps fungus attacks a host, the mycelium invades and eventually replaces the host tissue, while the elongated fruit body (ascocarp) may be cylindrical, branched, or of complex shape. The ascocarp bears many small, flask-shaped perithecia containing asci. These, in turn, contain thread-like ascospores, which usually break into fragments and are presumably infective.

Daar Kerst in,

Not sure about the clay. The extinction pattern does not seem to match. I woud hazard they may be Ca, Fe(III) phosphates. They are not always fluorescent, so you may need to check wit SEM-EDX, micro-XRF or similar techniques.

All the best,

Hans

Usually creating artifacts of one kind or another is considered a specifically human trait, whether creating an axe head or a clay pipe. Utilisation does not necessarily exclude art as pointed out. A mental map tends to be involved, plus use of hand and eye.

Although we now know that many animals use tools, and some shape them, invariably they serve single contingent purposes. (Does that though exclude them completely from art?)

Hi Julio,

Yes, liquid natural elemental mercury does occur. A well known source is the production of elemental Hg with natural gas production which then condenses. A lesser known source is the production of elemental mercury during in (deeply) anoxic aquifers where Hg2+ (and Hg+ for that matter) can start to act as an electron acceptor. This process results in the production of liquid elemental mercury.

Hope this helps! If you're interested in the flow behaviour of elemental liquid mercury in soils/aquifers, I have a few recent articles on the topic in my profile.

Best regards,

Niels

Thank you for that Mesfin. I will keep that in mind.

Flight interception traps sometimes also have arboreal tarantulas inside

Fire i.e. the temperature elevation above +/- 250°C of sediments or soils materials generate iron phases transformations (if weakly stable phases contemning iron are present) and so magnetic minerals enhancement. This magnetic minerals enhancement can be monitoring with contact sensors for magnetic susceptibility or magnetic viscosity measure. Thermoremanent magnetization is also acquired. This remanent magnetization and the induce magnetization generate by the local earth magnetic field are the origin of the local deformation of the magnetic field. Unfortunately, this signal is low compare to iron artefacts. For prehistorical fire, the signal is often undetectable beyond 1 m distance of the source, even before. So it is important to make survey very close to the surface. In such condition, it is difficult to obtain significant signal with magnetometer carried by UAV. The best is to measure total field variation. For this purpose (total field), in my opinion, optical pumping magnetometer are the most adapted for archaeology survey nowadays. The advantage geomagnetic survey compare to magnetic susceptibility is that you can detect sources even if it is covered by few decimeter of materials.

 In the theory of relativity, we define an observer who has two instruments; one for measuring the length and the other for measuring the time. The demand of the principle of relativity then implies that all possible observers must have the identical instruments. In the Einstein's theory of relativity , the instrument measuring time has one important role; that is to measure the time' t' taken by a light ray to reach the point (x,y,z) from the origin(o,o,o). It is this time 't' which   defines the forth coordinates of the four dimensional space-time in the Einstein's theory (special and general ) relativity.

Sorry..

It looks very scarce.

La verdad es que yo no trabajo sobre este período, quizás le interesaría contactar con Jordi Diloli, profesor de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili de Tarragona, quien quizás podría ayudarle.

Dear Joseph,

I know of no one  publshing an article concerning using 222Rn to estimate/calculate the volume of a karst system.  

One probable problem for not using this method immediately comes to mind.  Its the specific gravity of 222Rn vs that of air ( ~29).  As you can see, by the difference between these two numbers, your Rn atoms would act as if they were small, lead, B.B's  They'd sink thru the air column like small rocks.

Even CO_2, with a molecular weight of but 44, quickly settles and layers along the floor of caves.  Thus, we get a very few caves - containing "Bad Air".  222Rn would settle even faster.

- - - - -

Instead, you can calculate the volume of Karst systems - using gravity waves, diurnals, and last using the High/Low barometric pressure cells that cross over the U.S.A.

Gravity waves, in the atmosphere, tend to be caused by the Jet Stream, or major storms  These are low amplitude pressure waves - having a short period normally about 10 to 60 seconds long.  It takes a good micro-barometer, with a detection capacity of from 0.01 to 0.1 mm Hg, to catch and measure them.  An article on how to make a home made "Speleobarometer" was publised in the National Speleological Socities "Bulletin" about 1955-58.  

I used the data from that article - to calculate the minimum volume of Breathing Cave, Va. As I remember, the cave has a barometric volume somewhere between 20 -40 million cubic feet.  Gravity waves cycle, but they are not repeatable.  They vary in both amplitude and also period length - shiftying character even as often as every half cycle.

The diurnal is a longer pressure event - caused by the sun heating the land and atmosphere, during the day.  This heat expands the atmosphere, and lowers the barometric pressure by several mm of Hg.  Then, when the sun sets, the land and atmosphere cool off - causing the atmosphere to contract and increase in pressure.

At Lechuguilla Cave, N.M. this effect generated barometric cave winds of +/- 10-15 mph.  ... in roughly a 24-hr cycle.  Using the Ideal gas law, I calculated that Lechuguilla Cave had a minimum volume of 1.5 Billion cubic feet.

Lechuguilla Cave, though, responds much better and stronger - to the High and Low pressure cells that move across New Mexico.  I put together an expedition to measure the cave responding to these deeper, stronger pressure cycles.  

Lechuguilla Cave initially was measured sucking in at 43 mph.  The barometric wind then slowed, stalled, and reversed direction blowing out.  It blew out for 84 hours before slowing, nulling and once again reversing.  During that time the average wind velocity blowing out was 33 mph.  (It hit a peak velocity blowing out at over 49 mph.)

Using the Ideal Gas Law, Lechuguilla Cave has a minimum Karst system volume of 3.2 billion cubic feet.  By using its nominal 200 square feet of cross section - of its 'Halls", this cave could be as long as 2,400 miles.  Currently Lechuguilla is the 7'th longest surveyed cave in the World - at 138.3 miles in surveyed length.  (www.caverbob.com/wlong.htm)  Its calculated to be hidden within 45-square miles of land.

The largest Karst cave system currently known is - "The Black Hills Cave System" of South Dakota.  This cave system is believed to 'ring' the Black Hills anticline uplift, hidden within the Pahasapa Limestone.  The southern section has two entrances - lying within Wind Cave National Park, and Jewel Cave National Monument.  (Herb Conn, "Barometric Cave Winds of Wind and Jewel Cave" published about 1966 in the National Speleological Society Bulletin".)

These two entrances lie 25 miles apart.  The minimum volume of this southern section of Karst System is 4.5 billion cubic feet.  It is estimated now that the cave surveyors of these two caves have surveyed but 3% or so of the entire cave.  Jewel Cave, with a current surveyed length of 181.89 miles - is the 3'rd longest surveyed cave in the World; while Wind Cave, with a current surveyed cave length of 142.75 miles - is the 6'th longest surveyed cave in the World. Thus, this section of the cave system could be over 7,000 miles long, underlying 145-square miles of Minnelusa Sandstone caprock.

- - - - - -

Outside the U.S.A, the only other place I know of that have caves with measurable barometric winds - are those in S.W. Australia, East of Perth.  The "Aussies" call them, "Barometric Breathers".  Some of these caves have very strong cave winds - but it appears to result more from having a  "very porous" limestone.   

-Bruce Zerr

Director

Tennessee Cave Survey

There's also Marc Groenen's Pour une histoire de la Préhistoire which provides a non-exhaustive summary of the history of excavation methods.

And some more about Leroi-Gourhan's techniques by Paul Courbin (1987):

Increase the size and do several parametric study to ensure the stress distribution doesn't change with the model size. 

Andras,

Yes, until the 19th/20th century in most of the world, reading and writing was used by the elite of society (politicians, clergy, royalty, merchant princes) as a means of controlling the masses. As I have noted before on RG, colonial Mexico is a prime example where baron ranchers and other powerful people would go to "university" in order to learn enormous and complex words in which to use in front of their workers as a means to show the "peons" how much more intelligent and worthy of leading the "commoners" they were.

I believe that this has been propagated by some university systems even now, when you get questions like "What is macrogamete?" or "Define staphylorrhaphy" or "What is flagitiousness?" on college GRE exams. As if the everyday person, even with a minor degree, knows these obscure words, much less needs to use them in everyday conversation.

But getting back to the question - as previously noted, writing arises when a society reaches a certain technological/social complexity. Some will use the Inca as argument against this, but the Inca are almost unique, for they used knots on cordage/string to convey words. Thus, like cuneiform, their "writing" used a system of relationships between the same basic element to convey letters/words. The need to count, to keep track of numbers/inventory, is seen by many to have been the basis for the rise of the written language in several cultures. Some of the first "writing" that we find are marks on clay tablets, some with stamps/seals to show author.

Dilian,

I don't have the answer to this, but I am guessing that the type specimens will be in Riedel's collections in Warsaw (the actual collections have been moved to repository outside the city.) Try contacting Beata Pokryszko at Wroclaw, who has used the collections to deal with Caucasian material. I am not sure of the etiquette of posting email addresses online, but if you cannot find her through University of Wroclaw webpage, email me through researchgate. She may well have a copy of the original Riedel 1985 paper in Malak. Abh. Dresden, 10: 139-147. I am sure this will give the details. I think Wroclaw has a complete run of this journal.

 I will be in London on Feb 3, and if I have time, I will check the holdings there.

My guess is that it was collected by Riedel himself, since he did much work on cave faunas in Greece.

Dear Ana,

This is what is called in Portuguese "um punção losânguico" in French "allene lozanguique" typical of the Early Bronze Age. See, for example, "Senna-Martinez, J.C. 1994. "Subsídios para o estudo do Bronze Pleno na Estremadura Atlântica: (1) A alabarda de tipo «Atlântico» do Habitat das Baútas (Amadora)", in: Zephyrus, XLVI-XLVII, pp.149-170.

Best wishes,

J. C. Senna-Martinez

Like Mary, I also agree with Marcelo and Kendra. Bats could provide nutrients for cave animals but that is exclusively for those coprophagous. If the cave is disturbed, the bats could easily move from one location to another, they could easily find new suitable cave habitats. Invertebrates, which dominated the subterranean ecosystem, have limited movement, most especially the stygobitic animals (cave-obligate aquatic species). They are very sensitive even to slight cave disturbance therefore they could be affected very easily. Moreover, endemism of this stygobites are very high. So considering everything, stygobites are overall more prone to extinction. Cheers!

Hi David, Many thanks! In Bulgaria till now I found only Pisidium personatum, but some forms are strange... Stygobiotic snails are many species, in contrast, me described about 15 new species and even some new genera! Possibly the situation in the clams is not the same... After the Zhadin description of genus Speleopisidium from Caucasus, it was synonimized wth Euglesa by Korniushin (relatives of P. personatum)... As I said to my colleague and friend before: interesting is in front of us!

Cheers!

Hi, the two species were usually recognized a competitors to some degree. There was a long history of Norway rat pushing back the Rattus rattus. However, in recent years, there are some news about regaining some territories by Black rat.  It seems possible, that one way of adaptation of the two species is the increase of mutual tolerance of the two species. They would have to work out however, the way to share the niche, or to avoid confrontation.

Mylroie J E and Carew J I 1995 describe flank margin caves from the Bahamas formed in the saline/freshwater mixing zone--maybe helpful for what you need---paper title is: 'Karst development on carbonate islands/Speleogenesis and Evolution of Karst Aquifers 1. In Unconformities in Carbonate Strata-Their Recognition and the significance of Associated Porosity (eds. D A Budd, A H Saller and P A Harris), pp 55-76. American Association of Petroleum Geologists' Memoir no 63.

What about SISKA, Switzerland, Philipp Hauselmann: http://www.isska.ch/En/portrait/index.php?page=ph

This question almost requires a book to reply to... The short answer is: "stalagmites are considered to be isotopic recorders of the average climate of the past provided that they grew (i) in deep parts of the cave where temperature is constant and equal with the multi-annual mean temperature (MAAT); (ii) RH>95%, i.e. no kinetic fractionation; (iii) they can be dated with a resolution that matches the isotopic profiling"

This being said, forget about stalagmites in the entrance zone (unless the "entrance" is something like 20x20 cm hole which was excavated by speleologists or something like that). Also, one must understand the genesis of the cave before hammering stalagmites... What is today a "deep zone" may not have been in the past. For example, what we think is a "deep zone" may correspond to a former entrance of the cave in the past. Understanding cave genesis is paramount.

I don't want to upset anybody, but often people that work on stalagmites taken from entrance areas are not speleologists and they just grab the first stal they stumble upon. And then they come to the conclusion that equilibrium fractionation does not exist because, guess what? it isn't supposed to exist in the well ventilated areas anyway... So, go deep in the cave, choose a nice, "quiet" spot (for instance, a side passage, away from underground rivers and corresponding ventilation), then look for your stal. Hit it gently withyour hammer or with the chisel - listen to the sound: it should be high pitched. Hit many other stals until you choose one. Look at them in counter-light, try to see how nice and clear is the internal structure. If possible, take a small core from the base of the stalagmite and take it to the lab. It will give you an age estimate and (more important) the U-content, so you know what to expect in terms of age resolution.

Sometimes it is not possible to do the coring, do the preliminary date, and come back for sampling. So, you just have to use your best judgement before "hitting to kill". If there are broken stals around, look at their sections to have an idea what you can expect. If you can identify their roots, take the broken ones and hammer for the roots. If you decide to break a standing stal, document everything well. Look at the feeding point. If it's a soda straw, break also 1-2 cm of the straw tip for stable isotope analysis. If the feeding point comes from a curtain, then you will probably have lateral deviations in the profile of the stal - this is not good news, maybe you find something better. If the dripping point is very high, again this is not good news - the splash will deposit a lot of calcite on the sides of the stalagmite instead of the center, where you want it.

Ideally, what you want to get is a stalagmite that was fed constantly by a buffered aquifer (i.e. the signal averages the occasional storm events, etc.), with a low and steady drip rate (perhaps 1 drop every minute) from a source that does not allow much splash. We want the calcite to have the time to "grow" with minimum lateral loss and as constantly as possible.

Finally, a word about the expectations on climate reconstructions from speleothems. It is true that sometimes one may find speleothems that show annual laminae or seasonal couplets. It is true that we are now able to sample and measure stable isotope values to micrometer scale. However, any climatic interpretation will be hampered by the dating accuracy. So, for a Holocene sample and a 2SD error of +/-1% we can get dates within a +/- 100 yrs error. We must acknowledge this limitation - any stable isotope value we've got can be anywhere within, say, +/-200 yrs. Laminae backcounting and other methods alike are interesting but they cannot account for small hiatuses (e.g. 1-2-3 exceptionally drought years). To put it straight, we cannot ask speleothems more they can do. Let's keep the expectation within the geological timescale where +/-100 years for the Holocene would be absolutely great! 

As Olga suggested, you can easily use High throughput sequencing to identify who' s present in your culture. I would suggest performing Multi Locus  Sequencing Technology (MLTS) on NGS to specifically identify the siderophore producers in your culture

There has been a recent effort to explore Central Asian caves and retrieve speleothemes to map the regions under predominant westerlies or monsoon influence. I know that Sebastian Breitenbach (ETH Zurich) is working on the analysis of samples from Uzbekistan. You can find some isotope data  (∂¹⁸O ∂D) in a conference paper (ICS 2013) he uploaded in the link below.

You might find additional ressource on his profile page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seb_Breitenbach

Good luck