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Speleology in Kazakhstan

Shakalov on 11 Jul, 2012
Hello everyone!   I pleased to invite you to the official site of Central Asian Karstic-Speleological commission ("Kaspeko")   There, we regularly publish reports about our expeditions, articles and reports on speleotopics, lecture course for instructors, photos etc. ...

New publications on hypogene speleogenesis

Klimchouk on 26 Mar, 2012
Dear Colleagues, This is to draw your attention to several recent publications added to KarstBase, relevant to hypogenic karst/speleogenesis: Corrosion of limestone tablets in sulfidic ground-water: measurements and speleogenetic implications Galdenzi,

The deepest terrestrial animal

Klimchouk on 23 Feb, 2012
A recent publication of Spanish researchers describes the biology of Krubera Cave, including the deepest terrestrial animal ever found: Jordana, Rafael; Baquero, Enrique; Reboleira, Sofía and Sendra, Alberto. ...

Caves - landscapes without light

akop on 05 Feb, 2012
Exhibition dedicated to caves is taking place in the Vienna Natural History Museum   The exhibition at the Natural History Museum presents the surprising variety of caves and cave formations such as stalactites and various crystals. ...

Did you know?

That ferric oxide is rust; hematite (fe2o3) [16].?

Checkout all 2699 terms in the KarstBase Glossary of Karst and Cave Terms

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KarstBase a bibliography database in karst and cave science.

Featured articles from Cave & Karst Science Journals
Characterization of minothems at Libiola (NW Italy): morphological, mineralogical, and geochemical study, Carbone Cristina; Dinelli Enrico; De Waele Jo
Chemistry and Karst, White, William B.
Engineering challenges in Karst, Stevanović, Zoran; Milanović, Petar
The karst paradigm: changes, trends and perspectives, Klimchouk, Alexander
Long-term erosion rate measurements in gypsum caves of Sorbas (SE Spain) by the Micro-Erosion Meter method, Sanna, Laura; De Waele, Jo; Calaforra, José Maria; Forti, Paolo
See all featured articles
Featured articles from other Geoscience Journals
Geochemical and mineralogical fingerprints to distinguish the exploited ferruginous mineralisations of Grotta della Monaca (Calabria, Italy), Dimuccio, L.A.; Rodrigues, N.; Larocca, F.; Pratas, J.; Amado, A.M.; Batista de Carvalho, L.A.
Karst processes and landforms, De Waele, J.
Karst environment, Culver D.C.
Mushroom Speleothems: Stromatolites That Formed in the Absence of Phototrophs, Bontognali, Tomaso R.R.; D’Angeli Ilenia M.; Tisato, Nicola; Vasconcelos, Crisogono; Bernasconi, Stefano M.; Gonzales, Esteban R. G.; De Waele, Jo
Calculating flux to predict future cave radon concentrations, Rowberry, Matt; Marti, Xavi; Frontera, Carlos; Van De Wiel, Marco; Briestensky, Milos
See all featured articles from other geoscience journals

Exploration Spotlight. This page presents the latest discoveries and achievements in the areas of Karst and Cave Research as well as Sport Caving. The underground world is last black spot on the map of the Earth and these are the latest news from there:

Close Kuzgun Cave and its Context: the first super-deep cave in the Aladaglar Massif, Turkey

Aladaglar Karst & Cave Research Project

The Aladaglar Karst and Cave Research Project has been initiated in 2000 by Dr. Serdar Bayari, Dr. Lutfi Nazik, Koray Tork and Dr. Alexander Klimchouk with the twofold aim: 1) to advance knowledge of evolution and hydrogeology of the Aladaglar karst through a combination of speleological explorations and special geomorphological and hydrogeochemical studies and, 2) to challenge a task to discover and explore super-deep caves in this high-altitude karst. The idea was to combine the special expertise, cave exploration experience and resources of the involved scholars and institutions – General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA), Department of Geological Engineering of the Hacettepe University, Institute of Geological Sciences of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the Ukrainian Speleological Association. The challenge to discover and explore super-deep caves in this particularly difficult environment of the high mountain karst could be faced only through systematic speleological investigations in the area. Large and deep caves, if discovered, together with a wealth of regional speleological data, would give indispensable information to advancing key scientific issues of the Aladaglar karst, - its evolution and hydrogeology. In turn, special geomorphological and hydrogeochemical studies would help to develop more efficient strategy and methods for search and exploration of caves. The cave explorations under the Aladaglar project were integrated into the "Call of the Abyss" project searching to overpass the 2000m depth mark in caves.

The field activities under the Aladaglar Karst & Cave Research Project included a reconnaissance trip in October 2000 (10 days, 6 members) and a series of large month-long expeditions in August 2001 (26 members), August 2002 (28 members), July 2003 (26 members) and July 2004 (30 members). The expeditions were composed of cavers from the Ukrainian Speleological Association, MAD and HUMAK speleological clubs of Ankara and karst specialists of MTA and Hacettepe University.

Where the work is in progress:

Kuzgun Cave and its Context: the first super-deep cave in the Aladaglar Massif, Turkey

Vladimir Iljukhin Cave System: breakthrough behind the fourth siphon

3N Cave, New World’s Longest Cave in Salt

Krubera (Voronja) Cave: the first 2000m+ cave on Earth