Fascinating study that attempts to explain why #ancient humans painted the walls of #caves
I still wonder if there's a bit of survivorship bias here. Maybe we only find paintings of such antiquity because they lay undisturbed for so long. What if our ancestors painted every surface they could lay a brush on, yet only these survived?
We have had our annual monitoring day today, where we log and photograph the conditions of all of the assets in our care at the Wemyss coast.
Caves, paths (not the Fife Coastal Path) and carvings.
And the weather was mostly wonderful, although the most recent storms have made the paths pretty tricky to navigate in places.
Looking forward to welcome visitors back for tours from the 7th April!
In 2020, members of the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association (ACKMA) grouped together to set up a regional cave climate monitoring program. At the time, tourist caves were largely closed due to COVID-19, and a baseline study was envisaged.
Kasibu, Nueva Viscaya in Northern Luzon is a waterfall paradise. The sleepy and quiet town features "multi-tiered waterfalls, complex cave systems, eco-trails that ascend to stunning views, and birdwatching spots that more than 80 bird species call home."
I listened to this World Service podcast while running this morning. If you are interested in caves and cave science, human evolution, equity and diversity and more, this might be for you.
Following in the footsteps of ancient humans
Science In Action
In this special episode of Science in Action, we travel to South Africa to find out more about the origins of humans
It is spring here, and already there's 50 fires in the state of New South Wales. I'm hoping today's fire weather does not send the Willi Willi fire on a run. The region is in drought, everything is so dry.
After 1 week, there's a 150 km fire front to defend. Sadly, a life, houses and sheds have been lost, national park burnt through, maternity bat sites burnt over.
Close to the fire symbol on the map is one of the Kempsey Speleological Society long-term cave monitoring sites (and lots of bats).
#WondersOfNature: The #Marble#Caves are a series of intricate marble caverns and pillars that have been sculpted by the waters of General Carrera Lake in Chile.
The Marble Caves is geological formation of unusual beauty. These caves have formed in a pure marble and are bathed in the deep blue water of General Carrera Lake.
Next week I've been asked to talk about cave percolation water hydrology to a group of cave guides.
I'll be explaining how the water gets from the surface to dripping into a cave.
I'm going to try to make a physical model - something to fill with water (or similar liquids) and turn into a drippy mess.
So far I have some soil storage (a sponge), a water store in the limestone (PVC pipe) that I'll make leaky (drill holes to come), and some tree water use (clear tubes, human suction needed).
I'm open to all ideas for how to make this work well!
In particular, next I need a (cheap) waterproof land surface and cave roof
We were recently asked by @theconversationau to write an article about our recent research on the decline in groundwater replenishment in SW Western Australia, and how it is unprecedented in the last 800 years.
Proteus Anguinius (Olm)