Thanks Bill. I've forwarded your messages to get the book also posted on the Karst Information Portal (www.karstportal.org). I don't know what the current waiting time is before it gets posted, but I would guess within a week but maybe longer because it's summer and people may be away on vacation.
For everyone's information, posting on the Portal always takes extra time because the team does a lot of behind-the-scenes magic that optimizes each file for accessibility, discoverability, and functionality, including with digital tools that are currently in development. George ******************** 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] www.nckri.org -----Original Message----- From: Mixon Bill [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, July 19, 2013 10:49 PM To: Cavers Texas Subject: [Texascavers] revised book review I discovered a better source for that book on the caves of the tepuis. This one has no hassles and gives a choice of file sizes. Here's revised review. "Venezuelan Tepuis: Their Caves and Biota." Edited by Roman Aubrecht and Ján Schlögl. Comenius University, Bratislava; 2012. ISBN 978-80-223-3349-8. 8 by 11 inches, 167 pages. Free PDF file at http://www.geopaleo.fns.uniba.sk/ageos/monograph/aubrecht_et_al_2012_en.php . The tepuis of Venezuela are isolated mesas of Precambrian quartzite and sandstone with spectacular scenery, including 807-meter Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall. They also contains some large and unusual karst features, including huge shafts such as Sima Major on Sarisariñama Tepui, 300 meters wide and deep, and the Ojos de Cristal Cave System, 16 kilometers long. The helicopters sitting on the floor of the 200-meter-high entrance to Cueva El Fantasma in figure 13 look like flies. Quartzite is not very soluble, so the caves have been assumed to be very old, but no speleothems have been dated to before the Pleistocene. Ten feet of rain a year no doubt has something to do with their formation. Fifteen authors have contributed to this book. It is very much a scientific monograph, but even the most technical sections have many color photographs of unusual surface and underground features. Following a brief introduction to the geology and climate of the area, there is a hundred-page geology chapter. The part of that of most general interest is a survey of many of the caves known on the tapuis, although the only maps are small-scale outline maps. Other sections cover water chemistry and curious speleothems of unusual composition, such as silica. Geomicrobiology is apparently involved in the creation of some of the formations. The final chapter, on biota, is about thirty-eight pages long and covers only land snails, aquatic insects both surface and cave, and herps. The bibliography is fourteen pages of fine print. There are other sources on the web besides the one given above. Some require joining something or logging in. The one listed does not, and gives a choice of 160, 30, or 10 MB files with different degrees of compression of the illustrations. The color photographs are a very important part of the book, but it will be expensive to print out if you want to make a color hardcopy. If you do print it, note that the PDF file does not contain the blank back of the cover, so the left- hand pages all appear on the right. Before making a two-sided printout, add the blank page or delete the cover page.-Bill Mixon ---------------------------------------- God created the world in six days. On the seventh day, while God rested, the Devil created religion. ---------------------------------------- You may "reply" to the address this message came from, but for long-term use, save: Personal: [email protected] AMCS: [email protected] or [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
