speculations on terminology: In some ways, speleology is now in an evolutionary state, much as biology was in the early 18th century. Faced with a myriad of different things, they struggled to which diverse characteristics were the most important, and which were less critical. Order was eventually brought from chaos by the Linnean (binomial) system of classification. Since then there has been a general split between taxonomists who see all sorts of differences as significant and warrantling new names (splitters), and those who focus on more widely held characteristics (lumpers). There is perhaps no single right way of naming something. But when we do attach a name, we should be aware of the philosophical implications of doing so. In particular, it seems there should be a distinction between the terms applied to the form and to the mineralogy of diverse speleothems. By convention, most speleothems are described as a function of their morphology, which is related to the physical nature of the environment, in which they formed (source of fluids, drives of supersaturation, etc.). The mineralogic composition of the speleothem, which is related to the chemical nature of the environment, is in most cases is not mentioned, unless it's weird. If we start naming speleothems based on mineralogy, it would mean that we would need separate terms for calcite stalactites, aragonite stalactites, mixed calcite and aragonite stalactites, stalactites with laminae of hydromagnesite, etc., etc.. Following the hierarchical classification of organisms, would it make more sense, by convention, to describe speleothems by using a morphological term with (as necessary) a mineralogical modifier? It doesn't diminish the significance of any particular feature but increases the information contained in the term. Additionally, it makes the translation into other languages easier, searching terms easier and more intuitive, etc..
As as rule, the people who first discover and find something new are more likely to be splitters, and the people who follow up and bring diverse studies together are lumpers. They are like arborists, cropping off limbs that seem less functional than others. This commonly is related to age of the researcher, where young scholars are in the field finding new things, older scholars are in the labs, understanding what they have found, and long-toothed scholars are in the office, writing up and synthesizing the work of others. As a long-tooth myself, these relationships become increasingly clear. mq On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 6:45 PM J Lyles <j...@losalamos.com> wrote: > Cool, i know where Bex is, not far from Montreaux and Lac Leman right? I > go to that area frequently for work. Is it in the valley floor or up on the > cliffs in mountains? > On Aug 31, 2018, at 9:56 AM, Mark Minton <mmin...@illinoisalumni.org> > wrote: >> >> Another interesting salt mine to visit is the one at Bex, Switzerland. I >> went there in 1993-4. You can ride a miniature train through the workings >> and see antique equipment and workings. Everything gets encrusted with >> salt. The mine is still active today. >> >> Mark Minton >> mmin...@caver.net >> >> On Fri, 31 Aug, 2018 at 10:46 AM, Dwight <dirt...@comcast.net> wrote: >> >> Yes. We were at Turda a couple of years ago. It's spectacular as the >> salt has flowed plastically and is highly contorted. The "theme park" is a >> bit bizarre when you see it in person! >> Dirtdoc >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From: *"Harvey DuChene" <hrduch...@gmail.com> >> *To: *"Dwight" <dirt...@comcast.net>, jerryat...@aol.com, "Cave Texas" < >> Texascavers@texascavers.com> >> *Sent: *Friday, August 31, 2018 8:41:26 AM >> *Subject: *RE: [SWR CAVERS] Halitetites >> >> In 1998 or 1999, Kathy and I visited Romania and went to the salt mine at >> Turda in the Transylvanian Alps. The mine is very old, and I believe salt >> was being extracted as early as 900 bce. Tectonic forces have seriously >> contorted the bedding, and halite stalactites have preferentially grown >> along some of the bedding planes (see photo). Since our visit almost 20 >> years ago, the mine has been turned into and underground theme park. Search >> on “salina turda” to see what the place looks like today. >> >> >> Harv >> >> >> [image: Salina Turda salt mine in Romania reopens as theme park] >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Southwestern Cavers of the National Speleological Society" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to swrcavers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to swrcav...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/swrcavers. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swrcavers/d4339aa1-e0f3-4be7-934d-6b7188289458%40losalamos.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swrcavers/d4339aa1-e0f3-4be7-934d-6b7188289458%40losalamos.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >
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