UIS Commission on Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis

Dear Friends,

While the COVID pandemic has slowed many activities, you’ll see below that a lot good and important things for caves and karst continue. We hope you remain well and safe.

Here is the latest news:

Various News

  • UIS Bulletin: New Issue Available
  • UNESCO Adds 10 Cave/Karst Global Geoparks
  • The Speleogenesis Website is Revitalized

Research, Student, and Job Opportunities

  • NCKRI National Seed Grant Program: Request for Proposals
  • Virtual Student Internships at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, USA: Apply Now!

Conferences and Meetings

  • How to Attend the NSS Virtual Convention: USA
  • International Congress of Speleology: Excursions and More
  • List of Upcoming Cave and Karst Meetings

Please contact the people and organizations listed below for more information, and feel free to share this message with anyone who may be interested.

George

 -----------------------

 UIS Bulletin: New Issue Available

 Dear friends,

We are glad to share with you Volume 62-1 of the UIS Bulletin. To all who contributed materials and all readers. we really appreciate your comments and suggestions in order to improve upcoming issues.

 Please, send this information to the whole speleological community in your country and to your entire contact list.

The PDF Interactive format can be downloaded by clicking on the link.

The 33 pages of this issue bring the following topics:

  • • Editorial: “Uplifting Energy is Required“
  • • The President’s Column: “Advancing Speleology in the Age of COVID-19”
  • • International Year of Caves and Karst 2021: How to use and edit promotional materials
  • • UIS Bulletin: Complete collection now available
  • • Special issue of the International Journal of Speleology: Call for papers
  • • UIS Prizes 2021: Call for nominations
  • • The first International Cave Animal of the Year: Cave Beetle
  • • Genovesa Underwater Cave Encased in 10m of Sewage
  • • In Memoriam: Trifon Daaliev (Bulgaria)
  • • Calendar of Events
  • • 18th International Congress of Speleology 2021 – Newsletter Nº 2 available
  • • UIS Bureau 2017/2021
  • • List of Member Nations
  • • Annual Contributions and Bank Account

The complete collection (72 issues) of the UIS is now available by clicking on the link.

Visit the UIS Website

Best regards

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Brazil)
Adjunct Secretary / UIS Bulletin Editor
UIS-Union Internationale de Spéléologie

 

UNESCO Adds 10 Cave/Karst Global Geoparks

The United National Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) accepted 15 new Global Geoparks this month, of which 10 were listed in part for their caves and/or karst resources! They are:

  • Discovery, Canada
  • Xiangxi, China
  • Lauhanvuori-Hämeenkangas, Finland
  • Rio Coco, Nicaragua
  • Hantangang, Republic of Korea
  • Yangan-Tau, Russia
  • Djerdap, Serbia
  • Granada, Spain
  • Maestrazgo, Spain
  • Dak Nong, Vietnam

The International Union of Speleology (UIS) maintains the list of UNESCO Global Geoparks and World Heritage Sites that were established partly or entirely for their caves and/or karst. This addition increases the number of cave/karst Geoparks to 74. The list of cave/karst World Heritage Sites, which has not been updated since last year, remains at 98.

The UIS is proud to recognize that most of these sites would not have been recognized if not for the thousands of cavers and cave scientists who explored, documented, and studied these important areas, and supported their protection as Global Geoparks and World Heritage Sites. Congratulations to everyone involved!

For more information about these new parks visit this page. For the full list of UNESCO Geoparks, see this page.  The list of World Heritage Sites is on this page.  

Dr. George Veni, President
International Union of Speleology

 

The Speleogenesis Website is Revitalized

Speleogenesis website is a non-profit web platform aimed to promote karst and cave studies and integrate the international scholarly community through information exchange, communication, and collaboration. Started in 2013 as the Speleogenesis.info website, it developed and maintained various networking and information resources (Speleogenesis Network), serving as a hub of collaborative activities of individual researchers and research institutions involved in karst and geospeleology studies.

With time and the development of new Internet standards, the Speleogenesis.info website became technologically outdated and increasingly difficult to maintain. The content became increasingly outdated, too, as instruments for its creation available to the community were not friendly enough. This was one of the reasons why the popularity of the site has significantly declined.

The managing team has eventually decided to create a new website at Speleogenesis.com. which we are happy to present now. It is based on modern and efficient technologies and engines and includes the most demanded tools and services from the old site. The old site (Speleogenesis.info) remains operating but registration there is closed and new information is not provided. Personal accounts in the Speleogenesis Network are transferred to the new site but previously registered users are requested to renew their login/password credentials after the first log-in to the new site. If you forgot your login/password in the old system, please try to use the reset password option or register as a new user. Those who have no accounts at the old site are kindly invited to register. During the first log-in, please, indicate in your Member Area if you are willing to receive emails with hot news of karst/cave science from the Speleogenesis Network.

Speleogenesis.com offers the karst/cave science community up-to-date and efficient tools for publishing and disseminating announcements and news about any aspects of activities in the field – research projects, publications, events, job opportunities, exploration, etc. The privileged users can additionally disseminate “hot” news via Speleogenesis Network email list, which contains over 1,100 recipients (request this status if you feel that you need it, or just contact administrators to disseminate your published news though the list). The site maintains archives of news for each category, contains Glossary of karst/cave terminology, KarstBase, Karst and Cave Journals index, and the full archive of the journal Speleogenesis and Evolution of Karst Aquifers.

We invite the karst/cave scholars to explore the new site.

Join its community and use its rich functionality to foster information exchange, communication, and collaboration.

Sincerely yours,
Speleogenesis Team
Alexander Klimchouk
Alexey Kopchinsky

 

NCKRI National Seed Grant Program: Request for Proposals

Dear Colleagues,

NCKRI sends this reminder of our next round of seed grants in support of cave and karst research. The NCKRI National Seed Grant Program is designed to enable new cave and karst research, and encourage new principal investigators to enter the field.

Proposals for NCKRI National Seed Grants are due August 10th, 2020. Applications can be submitted at this link.

Please direct any questions about submission or budget preparation to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Other questions about this RFP can be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., NCKRI Academic Director.

We will also have another call for graduate and undergraduate student grants (the NCKRI Scholar Fellowship Program); that RFP will be announced later this year.

Please help spread the word about this opportunity, and please consider applying yourselves!

Sincerely,

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Geobiology, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Science
Academic Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)
314 Mineral Science and Engineering Complex (MSEC)
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Socorro, NM 87801

Virtual Student Internships at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, USA: Apply Now!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is offering two exciting Virtual Student Federal Service internships for the fall.

Applications are open July 1-31, 2020. For more information see this page or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sharing the Stories of Canyons and Caves (NPS-USA-13)

Help us tell the story of research, volunteerism and resource management at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Join the editorial team to proofread and layout "Canyons and Caves", the park's newsletter for Resource Stewardship and Science

Analyzing Cave Climate and Visitation (NPS-USA-3)

Are you interested in statistics and climate? Help us analyze climate and visitation data to better understand how visitors affect Carlsbad Caverns National Park's amazing cave resources

How to Attend the NSS Virtual Convention: USA

When the Virtual Convention begins on July 27, 2020, the convention website will have presentations available each day. All you will need is your laptop, smart phone, tablet. You simply “click on” the title of a session or presentation, and it will take you to either a page with all that section’s offerings or to the presentation itself.

There are also buttons on each page to help you navigate around the website. There are at least two ways to get somewhere.

All-Week Events

On Monday, July 27, all the available week-long events—Cave Ballad kiosk, Graphic Arts Salon, and T-shirt Salon—will go live. These would normally be available throughout the entire week of Convention.

Also on Monday morning, the sessions that would have taken place that day at the in-person Convention will go live as prerecorded videos. These are:

  • Opening Ceremony
  • Communications and Electronics Session
  • Cultures of Caves, Cavers, and Caving
  • Digging Session
  • State Cave Surveys Session
  • West Virginia Exploration

Later, the live events happen. Again, you click on the title and go to the meeting.

Using Zoom

Most meetings will use Zoom. Be sure to have the most current version of Zoom installed on your laptop. Download the free Zoom Client for Meetings. You can also join a live meeting via the phone; all links, phone numbers, and meeting IDs will be embedded in the live meeting title.

Event Times

For the global audience, remember that all times listed are US East Coast time. Also, we chose times that were later in the evening to allow for folks coming home from work in the east as well as to not be too early in the west.

This will be repeated for each day of the Virtual Convention. You still have to wait for the day the session would have happened, but the beauty of the Virtual is you don’t have to miss a presentation because it’s at the same time as another you also really want to see.

Later Viewing

All of the Virtual Convention presentations will be on the NSS’s YouTube channel after the convention is over. For all time. Free. How cool is that?

The Gone Caving! Card Game

The Gone Caving! card game will be played via a paid program called Tabletop Simulator, starting at 8:00 p.m. on Monday There will be three games with up to six people each, so join in early!

The 2020 NSS Convention Organizers

 

International Congress of Speleology: Excursions and More

Planning for the 18th International Congress of Speleology next year continues well. Excursions and many other activities and updates have been announced. See the UIS Bulletin (above in the first announcement in this message) for the latest details, and don’t forget that the abstract deadline is 31 August 2020.

 

List of Upcoming Cave and Karst Meetings

If you are interested in any of the following events, contact them directly to learn if they are still planned as announced below.

1) US National Speleological Society Virtual Annual Convention, 27-31 July 2020

2) Carbonate Critical Zone: an NSF-Sponsored Workshop, August-September 2020 (virtual meeting)

3) Karst 2020: Conservation of Fragile Karst Resources, 15-21 August 2020 (virtual meeting)

4) 9th International Workshop on Ice Caves (IWIC-IX) & the 12th Scientific Conference Research, Utilization and Protection of Caves, 8-11 September 2020 (Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia)

5) 14th Balkan Cavers Camp, 9-13 September 2020 (Dryanovo Town, Bulgaria)

6) Visual KARSYS Online Course, 16-17 September 2020

7) Geological Society of America Convention/GSA 2020 Connects Online, 25-28 October 2020 (Montréal, Québec, Canada)

8) European Cave Rescue Association Meeting 2020, 12-15 November 2020 (Cantabria, Spain) 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

10) 1st Karst Science Forum, postponed to 2021 (Bucharest, Romania)

11) International Course and Field Seminar: Characterization and Engineering of Karst Aquifers, postponed to 2021 (Žabljak-Durmitor Mt., Virpazar-Skadar Lake in Montenegro, and in Trebinje in Bosnia & Herzegovina)

12) 7th International Course Characterization and Engineering of Karst Aquifers (CEKA), postponed to 2021 (Montenegro: Žabljak-Durmitor Mt., Virpazar-Skadar Lake, and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Trebinje)

13) 16th Multidisciplinary Conference on the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst, 12-16 April 2021 (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

14) US Geological Survey Karst Interest Group Meeting, May 2021 (Nashville, Tennessee, USA)

15) Australian Cave and Karst Management Association Conference, 3-7 May 2021 (Wellington Caves, New South Wales, Australia), for more information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

16) 14th International Symposium on Pseudokarst, postponed to spring 2021 (Świętokrzyskie [Holy Cross] Mountains, Poland)

17) Karst Waters Institute Frontiers in Karst: Sulfuric Acid Weathering, postponed to mid-summer 2021 (San Vittore, Italy)

18) 28th International Karstological School “Classical Karst”: Regional Karstology - Local and General Aspects, 14-18 June 2021 (Postojna, Slovenia)

19) EuroKarst 2021: The European Congress on Karst Hydrogeology and Carbonate Reservoirs, 22-24 June 2021 (Málaga, Spain)

20) Karst Record IX (KR9) Conference, 11-14 July 2021 (Innsbruck, Austria)

21) 18th International Congress of Speleology, 25 July – 1 August 2021 (Savoie Technolac, Le Bourget du Lac, Savoie, France)

22) Central Asian Speleological Forum, postponed to August 2021 (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

23) 34th International Geographical Congress karst sessions: Global Karst Critical Zone and Land Use Planning in Karst, 16-20 August 2021 (Istanbul, Turkey)

24) 19th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology, 28 August - 4 September 2021 (Catania, Italy)

25) Fort Stanton Cave Science Conference, September 2021 (Socorro, New Mexico, USA)

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

28) Speleo Kamaraton, 29 October – 1 November 2021 (Marina di Camerota, Salerno, Italy), http://www.speleokamaraton.eu/

*******************

George Veni, PhD
Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)|
and
President, International Union of Speleology (UIS)

NCKRI address (primary)
400-1 Cascades Avenue
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA
Office: +575-887-5517
Mobile: +210-863-5919
Fax: +575-887-5523
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

UIS address
Titov trg 2
Postojna, 6230 Slovenia
UIS Website
IYCK2021 website