Karst of Sicily and its Conservation, 2012, Di Maggio C. , Madonia G. , Parise M. , Vattano M.

In Sicily, karst is well developed and exhibits different types of landscapes due to the wide distribution of soluble rocks in different geological and environmental settings. Karst affects both carbonate rocks, outcropping in the northwest and central sectors of the Apennine chain and in the foreland area, and evaporite rocks, mainly gypsum, that characterize the central and the southern parts of the island. The carbonate and gypsum karsts show a great variety of surface landforms, such as karren, dolines, poljes, blind valleys, and fluvio-karst canyons, as well as cave systems. Karst areas in Sicily represent extraordinary environments for the study of solution forms. In addition, they are of great environmental value because they contain a variety of habitats that hold species of biogeographic significance. Unfortunately, karst areas are increasingly threatened by human activity, mainly in the form of grazing and other agricultural practices, wildfires, quarrying, urbanization, building of rural homes, and infrastructure development. The value of karst features has been recognized by the Sicilian Regional Government since 1981 when it enacted laws to create several nature reserves to preserve the peculiar karst landscapes, including caves. At present, the state of conservation of karst areas in Sicily may be considered to be at an acceptable level, yet numerous issues and difficulties need to be overcome for the effective protection and enhancement of karstlands.

Höhlendunkel und Wissbegierde - Eine Kulturgeschichte der Höhlenforschung in Europa von der Antike bis zur Romantik, 2012, Mattes, J.

On the basis of the constructivist culture theory the traditional research interests of the history of science were renewed in the 1990ies. The article bases upon an oral presentation at the Austrian Society for the History of Science. In contrast to the dominating micro historic studies in the history of speleology, the paper provides an overview of the human activity in caves from ancient world to the beginning of the 19th century. This includes not only the scientific study of caves, but also sightseeing tours, the investigation and opening of caves undertaken by scientific laymen. The focus doesn’t lie on single explorers and their attainments, but concentrates on the changes in the perception and interpretation of the underground cavities as well as on the practice of the visitors and explorers. The results show an intimate correlation between the scientific and cultural discourses to the interior of the earth. The people in the antiquity and Middle Ages interpreted caves as sexualized areas, which refer to social taboos. Simultaneously caves were used for protection and as a place for religious meditations. During the Baroque period they became the location of bizarre objects, admiring promenades and aristocratic celebrations. In the Romantic period the netherworld was seen as an area of inwardness and edification. Geologists and paleontologists discovered them as archives of natural history; artists recognized caves as areas of spiritual revelation, where ancient myths were updated.

Evaluation of Strategies for the Decontamination of equipment for Geomyces destructans, the Causative Agent of the White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), 2013, Shelley V. , Kaiser S. , Shelley E. , Williams T. , Kramer M. , Haman K. , Keel K. , Barton H. A.

 

White-nose syndrome is an emerging infectious disease that has led to a
dramatic decline in cave-hibernating bat species. White-nose syndrome is caused by the
newly described fungal pathogen Geomyces destructans, which infects the ear, muzzle,
and wing membranes of bats. Although the exact mechanism by which the fungus causes
death is not yet understood, G. destructans leads to a high mortality rate in infected
animals.While the primary mechanism of infection appears to be bat-to-bat transfer, it is
still unclear what role human activity may play in the spread of this pathogen. Here we
evaluate the effectiveness of decontamination protocols that can be utilized by
speleologists to reduce the likelihood of spreading this dangerous pathogen to naı¨ve
bats or uninfected hibernacula. Our results show that pre-cleaning to remove muds and/
or sediments followed by the use of commercially available disinfectants can effectively
remove G. destructans from caving fabrics. Alternatively, immersion in water above
50 uC for at least 20 minutes effectively destroys the fungal spores. These results have
allowed the development of a decontamination protocol (http://www.fws.gov/
WhiteNoseSyndrome/cavers.html) that, when appropriately followed, can greatly
reduce the likelihood of the human mediated transfer of G. destructans from an
infected to uninfected site.

Temporal Variability of cave-Air CO2 in Central Texas, 2013, Cowan B. D. , Osborne M. C. , Banner J. L.

 

The growth rate and composition of cave calcite deposits (speleothems) are often used as proxies for past environmental change. There is, however, the potential for bias in the speleothem record due to seasonal fluctuations in calcite growth and dripwater chemistry. It has been proposed that the growth rate of speleothem calcite in Texas caves varies seasonally in response to density-driven fluctuations in cave-air CO2, with lower growth rates in the warmer months when cave-air CO2 is highest. We monitored CO2 in three undeveloped caves and three tourist caves spread over 130 km in central Texas to determine whether seasonal CO2 fluctuations are confined to tourist caves, which have been modified from their natural states, and the extent to which cave-air CO2 is controlled by variations in cave geometry, host rocks, cave volume, and soils. Nearly 150 lateral transects into six caves over three years show that CO2 concentrations vary seasonally in five of the caves monitored, with peak concentrations in the warmer months and lower concentrations in the cooler months. The caves occur in six stratigraphic units of lower Cretaceous marine platform carbonate rocks and vary in volume (from 100 to .100,000 m3) and geometry. Seasonal CO2 fluctuations are regional in extent and unlikely due to human activity. Seasonal fluctuations are independent of cave geometry, volume, depth, soil thickness, and the hosting stratigraphic unit. Our findings indicate that seasonal variations in calcite deposition may introduce bias in the speleothem record, and should be considered when reconstructing paleoclimate using speleothem proxies.

Karstification as a Predisposing Factor of Seismically Triggered Landslides: Case Study from the Crimean Mountains (Ukraine): Introduction to the Problem, 2013, Hradecký J. , Pánek T. , Šilhán K. , Smolková V.

Deep-seated gravitational deformations are significant denudational agents of rock slopes at the margins of karstified plateaus of the Crimean Mountains (CM). The CM evolved during Mesozoic–Cenozoic times as a response to the deformation between the Black Sea domain and East-European platform. The southwestern part of the area is characterized by steep, up to 1000-m-high coastal escarpments consisting of Late Jurassic limestones overlying tuff layers and weak Late Triassic flysch with sporadic small intrusions of Middle Jurassic diorites, gabbros and granites. Steep rock slopes contrast with elevated, highly karstified plateaus situated approximately 500–1300 m a.s.l. The aim of this article is to show long-term evolution of a giant rock slope failure close to the Black Sea coast in the southwestern tip of the CM near Foros Town. The failure evolved in highly anisotropic limestones overlying plastic flysch layers where the main head scarp follows a strike-slip fault. The Foros slope failure is an excellent demonstration of the significance of a preparatory stage in the evolution of large deep-seated slope deformations. Inherited and undisturbed horizontal slickensides on the sub-vertical, inactive fault surface serve as good evidence of significant extensional movement of the surface blocks away from the main headscarp. The studied deformation shows that in a relatively small area tensional (cutting) surfaces can be formed by a great variety of rock discontinuities such as the strike-slip fault, joints and steeply inclined bedding planes. The presence of well-developed, nowadays weathered, speleothems furthermore points to significant karstification that provided additional widening of spaces within rock mass. Gravitational movement destroyed and unroofed several cave systems originally presented at the former edge of a karst plateau. Our findings reveal that large rock slope failures can be added to the factors contributing to the evolution of unroofed caves. Although triggering factors of the activation of individual parts of slope deformations can be determined only hypothetically, lessons learned from widespread landslide activity during and after the 1927 Yalta earthquake and rainfall-driven landslides in the vicinity of Feodosia Town make us consider both seismic loading of slopes and high pore-pressures during heavy winter rainfalls or rapid spring snowmelt to be significant factors. Beside seismic activity, intensive Late Holocene slope processes can be attributed to intensive human activity.

 

KARST HAZARDS, 2013, Andreychouk Viacheslav, Tyc Andrzej

Karst hazards are an important example of natural hazards. They occur in areas with soluble rocks (carbonates, mostly limestone, dolomite, and chalk; sulfates, mostly gypsum and anhydrite; chlorides, mostly rock salt and potassium salt; and some silicates, quartzite and amorphous siliceous sediments) and efficient underground drainage. Karst is one of the environments in the world most vulnerable to natural and human-induced hazards. Karst hazards involve fast-acting processes, both on the surface and underground (e.g., collapse, subsidence, slope movements, and floods) and their effects (e.g., sinkholes, degraded aquifers, and land surface). They frequently cause serious damage in karst areas around the world, particularly in areas of intense human activity. Karst threat is the potential hazard to the life, health, or welfare of people and infrastructure, arising from the particular geological structure and function of karst terrains. The presence of underground cavities in the karst massif masks the threat from the hazards of collapse. This means that in some instances, the potential threats from karst, which are inherent features of the karst environment, become hazards. They range in category from potential to real. The term (karst hazards) is related to two other terms, used mostly in applied geosciences, particularly engineering geology – risk assessment and mitigation. Risk is the probability of an occurrence, and the consequential damages are defined as hazards. Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized hazard. Quantitative risk assessment requires calculations of two components: the magnitude of the potential loss and the probability that the loss will occur. Risk assessment is a step in a risk management. Mitigation may be defined as the reduction of risk to life and the environment by reducing the severity of collapse or subsidence, building subsidence-resistant constructions, restricting land use, etc.