texascavers Digest 4 Mar 2009 16:52:53 -0000 Issue 719
Topics (messages 10280 through 10288):
Kudos to Ed Goff
10280 by: speleosteele.tx.rr.com
Surveying, Anyone?! - LCSP Needs You, Saturday, March 7th.
10281 by: Mark.Alman.l-3com.com
15th ICS - camping and trip deadlines
10282 by: George Veni
Cave Property for Sale
10283 by: Bill Walden
White Nose Syndrome
10284 by: Minton, Mark
bat die-off
10285 by: Mixon Bill
Follow-up to "cave house for sale"
10286 by: Louise Power
UT Grotto Meeting - March 4, 2009
10287 by: Gary Franklin
NCKRI Education Director position closing soon
10288 by: George Veni
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Check out the DFW Grotto Web site at:
http://www.dfwgrotto.org/
Our webmaster Ed Goff has greatly enhanced it and it's super cool.
Bill
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Good morning, all!
If you're looking for something to do this weekend and have experience
and a hankering for some surveying, the Longhorn Caverns Project could
use you!
Lyndon Tiu and Peter Sprouse are looking for a few additional seasoned
surveyors and sketchers to help out adding unmapped passageway to the
Longhorn Caverns map.
Unfortunately, I have a prior commitment with my daughter and will be
unable to attend.
If you would like to help out, please contact Lyndon.
As always, we will meet up at the LCSP Visitors Center at 9AM Saturday
and caravan over to the Crownover entrance.
Camping is available Friday and Saturday night in the picnic area, near
the observation tower.
Contact Lyndon for the combo.
One other note: LCSP Staff have asked us to please stay away from the
tourist entrance and the amphitheater behind the Visitors Center, as
there is a wedding going on this weekend.
Your help and consideration is appreciated!
Thanks!
Mark and Lyndon
>From the latest issue of The TEXAS CAVER, written by Lyndon Tiu:
While the 1st and 2nd teams continued their work of widening the primary
passage. The 3rd team decided to stop digging and do some exploration of
the rest of the cave.
It is known from maps of Longhorn that the rear of the cavern was not
passable due to high water (see map, "Passage Blocked by High Water").
Knowing that we are in the middle of a serious year long drought, we
thought perhaps water levels have dropped and the rear would now be
passable.
A few cavers went all the way to the back and saw an ear dip passage.
One of the cavers did not have proper water proof lights. So the whole
group turned around. It was lunch time anyways. So a plan was hatched:
We go back up the surface, eat, re-group, get the right equipment
together and go back in and push to the back of the cave.
After lunch, the majority of the 24 cavers opted for the through trip
from the commercial entrance to the Crownover entrance A smaller group
of 7 cavers from ASS and GHG went for the rear of the cave to see how
far we can go "past the map".
We went through the ear dip passage with no incident. The ear
dip was about 10 feet in length, with air space narrowing down to about
2 inches in parts. So narrow, a few of the cavers in the group decided
to remove their helmets just to get Through and still stick their noses
above the water to breath.
From the most recent maps, we knew that the surveyed cave
terminus extended not too far from the Crownover entrance (see map,
"Cave Extends Further"). After passing the ear dip and crawling for a
while, we were very certain that we were no longer "on the map".
We crawled and walked through mud and debris for about 45 minutes after
the ear dip when we reached what seems to be the end of our journey to
the rear. We were now at a sump surrounded by soft mud, crawling full of
crayfish.
The mud was so soft and deep we would sink to our ankles while walking
over it.
Along the way, we saw white spikey fungi growing on some dirt on
the cave floor. I noticed the "basement floor" of the cave after the ear
dip is smooth white dolomite covered in most places by a thin layer of
mud. We noticed cave crickets in a small segment of the cave, indicating
an entrance is nearby. We saw a few forks in the cave. But since this is
our first time in this cave passage, we decided to stick to the main
passageway and come back next time for the side passages.
We are planning on going back next month to survey the cave
after the ear dip. We are also planning on exploring and surveying the
side passages we saw (but did not have time to explore) and see if there
are any leads to the surface. In the process, we wish to officially
extend Longhorn further on the map.
We had hoped we were in virgin cave passage, but some research burst our
bubble. According to an excerpt from the Caves of Burnet County
Publication, it says: "Members of the San Angelo College Speleological
Society and the ITSS explored the northernmost portion of the cave
beyond the Salamander Trail on 30-31 March 1962. They found that the
reported sump at the end of the cave was open and were able to continue
exploration for several thousand feet to another sump. Unfortunately,
no survey of the cave was made during the trip."
Rain has been falling since. This may mean we can never go back and
survey as the ear dip passage may be fully underwater by the time we get
back next month.
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
This electronic mail transmission is confidential, may be privileged and
should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have
received this transmission in error, please immediately notify the
sender and delete it from your system.
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--- Begin Message ---
Here is a message that is being distributed to the ICS e-list. Feel free to
post and distribute it to anyone who may be interested. If you want to join
the e-list for these and other updates, let me know.
George
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Dear Friends,
This message is a reminder of two important deadlines for the 15th
International Congress of Speleology (ICS).
Camping:
If you have pets, an RV, or would just prefer to camp along the lovely
Guadalupe River during the ICS, you must camp at Kerrville-Schreiner Park.
It is located about 3 km from Schreiner University. All campsites near the
river are reserved for people registering for the ICS, but they will only be
held until the end of March! After that they will be available to the
general public. If you want to camp at the park, reserve your space quickly.
Complete details are available at:
http://www.ics2009.us/camping.html (English)
http://www.ics2009.us/icsfrench/camping.html (French)
http://www.ics2009.us/icsgerman/camping.html (German)
http://www.ics2009.us/icsitalian/camping.html (Italian)
http://www.ics2009.us/icsspanish/camping.html (Spanish)
This campground is popular and all spaces for the summer may be reserved by
early May.
Trip Registration:
To guarantee a space on the pre-ICS, post-ICS or Wednesday trips, you must
register by 16 April 2009. After that date, you will only be able to
register for trips if space is available. If trips do not have enough
registrants by the 16th they will be cancelled. I know many of you will wait
until the last minute to register, but I recommend registering now! By
waiting, your 1st choice trip may fill before you can join it. Also, several
of our trips do not yet have enough people to confirm they will run. Some of
your friends and colleagues are waiting for that confirmation before they
can make travel plans. The earlier the trips are confirmed, the easier and
less expensive it will be for you and others to schedule your travel to the
ICS. And remember, no meetings or sessions will be offered on Wednesday, so
unless you want to sit alone at the university, we strongly encourage you to
register for one of the 20 excellent Wednesday trips. Visit www.ics2009.us
for details and https://secure.concentric.com/ics2009.us/register/ to
register on-line.
See you in Kerrville in 4 months and 18 days!
George
George Veni, Ph.D.
Chairman, 15th International Congress of Speleology
Adjunct Secretary, International Union of Speleology
Executive Director, U.S. National Cave and Karst Research Institute
***********************
George Veni, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Cave and Karst Research Institute
1400 Commerce Dr.
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA
gv...@nckri.org
www.nckri.org
001-575-887-5517 (office)
001-210-863-5919 (mobile)
001-413-383-2276 (fax)
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I just learned that a 234 acre (approximately) property in Wayne County,
Kentucky is for sale. The property contains two caves: Coal Trace Cave, which
has the second largest cave room in Kentucky, and Saltpetre Pit. Saltpetre Pit
is approximately 124 feet deep. It was mined for salt petre in the early 1800's
and for guano through the 1920's. Local farmers used the guano for fertilizer.
I first visited Saltpetre Pit, which we named Barefoot Pit because an 8 year
old barefoot girl led us through briar patches up the hill to the cave, in
1972. Paul Unger and I dropped the pit that year and started to survey it. The
cave contained a few artifacts from the salt petre mining days and drawings on
the cave wall left by the miners. It is an interesting cave. I plan to visit
the cave next week (3/8/2009) with Fish and Wildlife people to do a bat count.
If any cavers are interested please contact me for additional information.
Best regards,
Bill Walden
wdwal...@windstream.net
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There is a lengthy report on White Nose Syndrome on Earthfiles at
<http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1529&category=Environment>.
Mark Minton
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"WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITH THE INSECT POPULATION?
"It’s going to go sky high! It’s going to explode. We’re talking about
agricultural pests. We’re talking about mosquitoes. And that’s going
to ripple through the ecosystem. And I said this to my colleague, Greg
Turner, the other day, ‘You know, I’m not usually a ‘sky is falling’
kind of person.’ And Greg said, ‘But you know the sky is falling.’ And
I said, ‘Yeah, I agree.’ It’s really tragic and I, quite frankly,
don’t see it being stopped at the moment. Then it might start
dominoing or rippling through the ecosystem at multiple levels. It’s
really almost hard to predict. But the sky is kind of falling."
Boy, chiropterphiles must love that Earthfiles gal. She's really good
at finding alarmists and spectacular quotes. Want to know my
prediction? Nobody in the areas where white-nose syndrome has killed
off 90% of the hibernating bats will notice the difference this
summer. Is Michigan, with no cave bats to speak of because it has no
caves to speak of, noticably more buggy than New York? Is Dallas, far
from the huge Texas bat caves, with populations vastly greater than
the paltry numbers in the northeast, noticably more buggy than San
Antonio? Get real.--Mixon
---------------------------------------------
He who renders warfare fatal to all engaged in it will be the greatest
benefactor the world has yet known. - Sir Richard Burton
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You may "reply" to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: edi...@amcs-pubs.org or sa...@amcs-pubs.org
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They've put it back up for sale on eBay. Maybe NSS should buy it and move their
headquarters there.
http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=18244526>1=35000
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Underground Texas Grotto meeting March 4, 2009
www.utgrotto.org
The meeting is on Wednesday from 7:45 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
on the University of Texas Campus in 2.48 Painter Hall
http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/pai.html
The Presentation will be a subterranean journey by Victoria Siegel and Bill
Stone www.stoneaerospace.com
Sub-Ice Exploration of West Lake Bonney:
ENDURANCE 2008 Mission
Bill Stone
Stone Aerospace, Austin, TX
ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer)
is a highly maneuverable, hovering autonomous underwater science platform
descended from the DEPTHX vehicle, both of which were developed under NASA
ASTEP funding. ENDURANCE had the specific mission of descending through a 3
to 5 meter deep melt hole in the ice cap of West Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley,
Antarctica and conducting three autonomous science tasks:
1) measuring the 3D water chemistry of the lake;
2) mapping the underwater face of Taylor glacier where it enters the lake; and
3) charting the bathymetry of the lake bottom; and then
4) returning safely on its own to the melt hole – barely 0.25 m larger in
diameter than the vehicle – from more than 700 m radial range and rising up the
hole to be retrieved for data download and servicing for the next mission.
Many features of ENDURANCE represented radical changes and improvements over
its highly successful predecessor craft. Included among these was the
development of an automated sub-sea servo winch and sonde payload with its nine
water chemistry probes, high def imaging system, and bottom ranging altimeter.
A specialized ice-picking behavior was developed to maximize cast initial
proximity to the underside of the ice sheet and to reduce power consumption
during casts. The navigation system was comprised of a three layer Kalman
filter utilizing high grade dead reckoning, ultrashort baseline localization,
and machine vision. Also new were web-based glacier imaging systems and a
120-degree swath high resolution multi-beam mapping sonar system – used for
both lake bottom and glacier face mapping. All of these systems, following
several days of initial shakedown in the – 4C water, worked flawlessly for the
duration of the expedition, producing nearly 80 sonde casts spread over 80% of
the lake area (2.5 km length x 1.25 km width x 40 m depth); greater than 100
million 3D sonar hits across the Taylor glacier; and more than 400 million
bathymetric 3D hits on the lake bottom. The vehicle successfully demonstrated
autonomous melt hole location, position lock and auto recovery on a routine,
daily basis. A custom magnetic beacon tracking system was developed that
allowed for real-time surface position fixes to be established on the vehicle –
a powerful new feature that allowed us to precisely geo-reference all water
chemistry samples. Many of the characteristics and capabilities of ENDURANCE
– now successfully demonstrated for the first time in real under-ice complex
settings beneath West Lake Bonney -- are the types of behaviors that will be
needed for sub-ice autonomous probes to Europa, Enceladas, and other outer
planet watery moons.
Team ENDURANCE: UIC, Stone Aerospace, NASA, NSF OPP, University of Montana
For information on Underground Texas Grotto activites, please see the website
www.utgrotto.org
All of our information is available through our link including officer contact
info. Check it out and surf around for information on trips reports, new caver
training, calendar, and link to get included on mass postings for either
beginner trips or vertical rope training.
We are busy with all kinds of activities that we discuss after each of our
meetings as well. Come out and hang out with us for burgers, beer, and tall
tales at the after meeting at Posse East.
Posse East
2900 Duval Rd
Austin Texas
www.posseeast.com
The UT Grotto is always looking for someone like you that has cool photos and a
story to share about your caving adventures. Contact Gary to get your place in
the spotlight. v...@utgrotto.org
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--- Begin Message ---
Just before Christmas I sent a message that the National Cave and Karst
Research Institute is hiring a director to develop and lead its Education
Program. This note is to remind you that all applications are due by the end
of business on March 15th. If you or anyone you know may be interested,
visit http://externalweb.nmt.edu/hr/jobs/AssocDirEdRevised08-098.htm for
details and to apply. For questions about the application process and job
benefits, contact the person listed on the website. For details about the
job itself, feel free to contact me.
Thank you for your attention and interest,
George
***********************
George Veni, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Cave and Karst Research Institute
1400 Commerce Dr.
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA
gv...@nckri.org
www.nckri.org
001-575-887-5517 (office)
001-210-863-5919 (mobile)
001-413-383-2276 (fax)
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