texascavers Digest 13 Mar 2014 16:36:08 -0000 Issue 1947
Topics (messages 23580 through 23583):
Announcement: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GROUNDWATER IN KARST
23580 by: George Veni
Volunteer Work Opportunity at the NSS Huntsville HQ
23581 by: Preston Forsythe
Favorite crawl
23582 by: Louise Power
The Rest of the Story
23583 by: dirtdoc.comcast.net
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--- Begin Message ---
Dear Friends,
Below is an announcement of an important conference that will be held next
year. Please share this with anyone who may be interested. For more information
contact Dr. John Gunn at: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>.
George
-----------------------------
KG@B 2015
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GROUNDWATER IN KARST
With optional pre- and post-conference field trips
20-26 June 2015, Birmingham, UK
PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT
The word "karst" is a germanization of the place name for a region in the
northwest Dinaric area that is commonly referred to as "the Classic Karst". The
word has passed into the scientific vocabulary to describe a special
environment in which the major groundwater flux is through an integrated
network of dissolutionally enlarged channels that discharge via discrete
springs. The channels span a very wide aperture range; the smallest are little
more than micro-fractures or pathways through the rock matrix but at the other
end of the spectrum (and commonly n the same rock mass) channels may grow to
dimensions where they can be explored by humans and are called caves. The
relationships between matrix, channels and conduits in a carbonate rock mass
are a product of recharge and rock lithology, stratigraphy and structure and
exploration of these relationships is a key theme of the conference. Water
transfer through the smaller channels that are commonly intersected by
boreholes is very slow and has often been analyzed using equivalent porous
media models although the limitations of such models are increasingly
recognized. At the other end of the spectrum (and commonly in the same rock
mass) the channels may grow to dimensions where they can be explored by humans
(caves) through which water flow is analogous to 'a surface stream with a roof'
and may be amenable to analysis by models devised for urban pipe networks. The
development of holistic and realistic models for water movement and storage in
karst is a second key theme of the conference. The direct, and often rapid
connections between surface water and groundwater in karst have given rise to
distinctive groundwater ecosystems that have only recently been subject to
detailed study and this forms a third theme for the conference. Finally, of
course, it is well known that karst groundwater systems are of global
importance to humans both as direct sources of potable water and as the source
of many rivers. Hence, a fourth theme will consider human-karst groundwater
interactions, a wide area that includes water resource assessment, groundwater
protection, mineral extraction and infrastructure development.
In summary, the CONFERENCE THEMES will be:
1. Lithological, structural & stratigraphical influences on karst groundwaters.
2. Modeling karst groundwater systems.
3. The ecology of karst groundwaters.
4. Human-karst groundwater interactions
The symposium will be the annual meeting of the IAH Karst Commission and of the
UIS Commission of Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis and is also sponsored by
the British Cave Research Association, the British Geological Survey, the
Hydrogeology Group of the Geological Society of London and the IAH GB Chapter.
The symposium will take place shortly after the 80th birthday of Professor
Derek Ford and will provide an opportunity to celebrate with him and to
recognize the huge contribution that he has made to the study of karst.
DATES AND PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME
The Conference will take place at the University of Birmingham from 20-26 June
2015 as follows: Saturday 20th June : Optional special workshop for consultants
and professionals on "Karst groundwater systems"
Sunday 21st June : Optional field trip - Groundwater in Cretaceous carbonates.
Monday 22nd June : Opening of formal meeting. Paper sessions. Evening meeting
of karst commissions.
Tuesday 23rd June : Morning paper sessions
Afternoon. Optional field trip to local underground limestone quarry visited by
canal barge
Or workshops or free time to visit local area
Evening. Conference dinner
Wednesday 24th June Paper sessions. Close of formal meeting
Thursday 25th June Optional field trip - Groundwater in Jurassic carbonates.
Friday 26th June Optional field trip - Groundwater in Carboniferous carbonates
********************
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]<mailto:[email protected]>
www.nckri.org<http://www.nckri.org>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
The SKTF is returning to the NSS headquarters to continue the watershed
restoration project this weekend, March 15 & 16. We will be working on
invasive plant removal in the campground area. Please come help us work on
this worthy project. We accomplished a good start to the project in
January. Let's get a good turnout and really get this project off the
ground. If indoor work on the HQ is not for you, come enjoy the early
spring weather and spend the day outside. After the event, you can walk up
the hill and cave on the property. There is camping on the property, both
indoors and out. We will be starting at approximately 9:30 central time.
I will be bringing my tractor and we'll be renting a large chipper. Bring
loppers, bow saws, chain saws, machetes, axes and other implements of
destruction and we will attack the privet hedges and overgrown honeysuckle.
Bring gloves and wear sturdy boots. If you are allergic to poison ivy, I
highly recommend ivy block.
There is indoor and outdoor camping and the NSS will provide dinner and beer
on Saturday night. Come and join the fun. Email me off list if you need
more information.
Maureen Handler
SKTF Director
NSS HQ Volunteer Coordinator
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
My favorite crawl was The Corkscrew in Midnight Cave on one of my early trips
to CV. I didn't find it a particularly hard crawl except that I got a little
claustrophobic. But what made it stand out in my mind was that someone (don't
remember who) had taken their speleopups into the cave. As I was making my down
the crawl, I heard some noise behind me and four furry feet planted themselves
in the middle of my back and a speleodog went right over me and out of the
crawl. Guess he didn't want to wait while I made my way down.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
See below
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louise Power" <[email protected]>
To: "texas cavers" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 6:26:17 PM
Subject: [Texascavers] Favorite crawl
My favorite crawl was The Corkscrew in Midnight Cave on one of my early trips
to CV. I didn't find it a particularly hard crawl except that I got a little
claustrophobic. But what made it stand out in my mind was that someone (don't
remember who) had taken their speleopups into the cave. As I was making my down
the crawl, I heard some noise behind me and four furry feet planted themselves
in the middle of my back and a speleodog went right over me and out of the
crawl. Guess he didn't want to wait while I made my way down.
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The Rest Of The Story
That was a memorable weekend at Carta Valley, camped inside the long-gone
Triangle. Probably in the late 1960s. It was a dark and stormy night, as
chronicled by Carl Kunath in his 50 Years of Texas Caving. Trucks and assorted
vehicles arrived and found themselves parked nose-in, in a ragged circle. Tarps
were strung from truck to truck, cavers sitting on the warm (initially) hoods
and speleo-bumpers in the center. Louise arrived in her VW beetle. Jon Everage
arrived from Houston with a case of odd-lot bargain wine from the get rid of it
quick basket - a buck a chuck. Bottles of various unmemorable vintage were
passed about the assembled cavers. Stories grew, songs were sung, and bladders
filled as it continued to rain.
After Sandy and I turned in, Louise decided she had found a dry spot under
Tortuga. (See Kunath for complete description of why she found herself so wet
in the morning).
The next morning the rain had stopped and we visited with Doc Harding. Then off
to Midnight Cave. Both Crooked Thumb and Woola were along, as were students
from Sul Ross. Pete Lindsley was there and also stalwart Carta Valley Texicans.
Crooked Thumb (the Truffle Hound) was the much more experienced caving and
climbing dog. He was used to waiting patiently as I climbed up a distance and
then signaled him, whereupon he would scramble up over me, using me for toe and
claw-holds, and continue upward.
We started up the Corkscrew, and from Louise's post, she must have been ahead
of me (although I remember being in the lead). Crooked Thumb suddenly clawed
his way up and around me (he failed to wait for my signal) and continued ahead,
up the Corkscrew. He disappeared on up into the cave. Woola (the Norwegian
Elkhouhd) less adept, followed.
Dimnly, In the far distance, I hear voices of someone we did not know was in
the cave:
"Did you hear that?"
"Someone is coming behind us!"
"G--- D---IT!"
" IT'S A DOG!"
"SH---!!! HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE!!"
It turned out that there were four young people ahead of us. Doc Harding's son
and some friends.
DirtDoc
--- End Message ---
