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. ...
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,
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. ...
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 viscosity is 1. the resistance of liquid to flow [16]. 2. the property of a real fluid creating shear forces between two fluid elements and giving rise to fluid friction [16]. specifically, it is the ratio of the shear stress to the rate of shear strain [6].?
Various geomorphologists such as Bögli, Corbel and Lehmann have in recent years demonstrated the interest that certain simple chemical analyses of natural waters can have for the comparison of rates of limestone solution in different in different climatic conditions. They can also have their relevance for the tracing of underground water connections as Oertli (1953) has shown in the example of the Slovenian part of the classical Yugoslavian karst. Since 1957, the writer has therefore been making such analyses of waters from Australian limestone areas. The chief significance of these measurements comes when one caving area is compared with another. M.M. Sweeting (1960) has already commented briefly on observations from Mole Creek, Tasmania, Buchan, Victoria and the Fitzroy Basin, Western Australia, made in 1958-59 by herself and the writer; further discussion will appear in a forthcoming publication of ours on the Limestone Ranges of the Fitzroy Basin. Nevertheless measurements of this kind can have a certain intrinsic interest as it is hoped to show in the following notes on the few observations I made at Yarrangobilly. These observations are set out in tabular and Trombe graph forms; the locations of the collecting points are shown on the map.
In Yugoslavia there are 5 species of the Genus Spelaeodiscus (Gastropoda, Pulmonata): Sp. hauffeni (F. Schmidt), Sp. triaria (Rossmàssler), Sp. albanicus (A. J. Wagner), Sp. unidentatus Bole and Sp. obodensis sp. n., decribed here. The anatomical researches on Sp. hauffeni (F. Schmidt) and Sp. unidentatus Bole have proved that they belong to the family of the Pupillidae and not to the one of the Valloniidae. This fact confirms the opinion of Hudec, according to whom the genus Spelaeodiscus belongs to the family of the Pupillidae.
Studying several Bogidiella individuals collected from the phreatic biotope of Cerna Valley (Oltenia region) using Karaman-Chappuis method, authors announce the presence of Bogidiella albertimagni Hertzog in Romania. After a description of the studied individuals, the authors talk about some problems concerning the taxonomic value of B. albertimagni and B. skopljensis Karaman (this second species being formerly known in Romania) and the validity of B. denticulata Mestrov described from Yugoslavia.
Three caves of the central part of the Bulgarian Balkan (Stara planina, close to the village of Etropolé) host cavernicolous beetles of the subfamily Bathysciinae (family of Catopidae) that constitute a new genus of the Brachyscapes group. In this paper the diagnosis of this new troglobe genus together with the description of the type species Balcanobius etropolensis, gen.n., sp.n. are given. The new genus is then inserted in the dichotomic table as defined by R. Jeannel, placing it close to the other two Yugoslavian genus Parapropus and Spelaeodromus.
Pelodrilus bareschi Mich., one of two species of limicolous oligochaetes strictly confined to a subterranean environment and previously known from several caves in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, was recently found in three caves in the Banat Mountains, Romania. Examination of sexually mature worms showed that they are within the range of variability of P. bareschi and that there is no reason to describe a form peculiar to the caves of Banat. Pelodrilus has almost always been found in the mud or clay covering the bottom of pools of variable size, which are filled by periodic flooding of underground water courses. The Banat colonies are small.
The new subspecies Stenasellus skopljensis thermalis, from Banja Luka (Bosnie, Yugoslavia) is described. From the ecological point of view this form differs from the others because it inhabits underground waters of elevated temperature (240°C). Another constantly abundant species, St. hungaricus thermalis Mestrov, also occurs in Yugoslavia under the same ecological conditions, in the warm springs of Podsused near Zagreb. This indicates that these underground waters at elevated temperature are not accidental but preferred habitats for these forms, and confirms once again that thermal waters of this type are the biotopes-refuges in which certain relic forms are retained.
The new subspecies Stenasellus skopljensis thermalis, from Banja Luka (Bosnie, Yugoslavia) is described. From the ecological point of view this form differs from the others because it inhabits underground waters of elevated temperature (240°C). Another constantly abundant species, St. hungaricus thermalis Mestrov, also occurs in Yugoslavia under the same ecological conditions, in the warm springs of Podsused near Zagreb. This indicates that these underground waters at elevated temperature are not accidental but preferred habitats for these forms, and confirms once again that thermal waters of this type are the biotopes-refuges in which certain relic forms are retained.
Rhode magnifica n. sp. is described from a Montenegrine cave and Rhodestalitoides n. sp. from a Bosnian cave. There is a redescription of Rhode aspintfera (Nikolié). The author includes in the genus Rhode the species previously contained in the genera Harpassa and Typhlorhode. The northern Yugoslav genus Stalita and related genera are regarded to be the nearest relatives of Rhode and it is concluded that they have originated on the Balkan Peninsula from a common ancestor.
The wad-minerals from limestone caves of Yugoslavia, China and Japan were studied. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed five minerals; birnessite, 10A-manganite, pyrolusite, todorokite and goethite. The heavy metal elements, Mn, Zn, Fe and Cr have been detected by X-ray fluorescence analysis and their contents were roughly determined. The condensation water introduced directly from the covering soils formed by the continental weathering and the deriving corrosive water interaction with limestone could be the input sources of manganese and other metal elements into the system.