Dave Shearsmith
New member
BCRA NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2025
Our Social media news outlets...
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/britishcaver
• BCRA News forum: http://bcra.org.uk/forum
• The Darkness Below https://darknessbelow.co.uk
• UK Caving http://ukcaving.com/board/?board=86.0
In this newsletter
The February BCRA online seminar
Cave and Karst Science 51(3)
CREG Journal 128
Derbyshire Explorers Forum
BCRA Science Symposium 2025
Hidden Earth 2025
Bid for 2029 UIS Congress
BCRA Membership
Next Council Meeting
Supporting BCRA
Monday 10th February , 19:30 to 21:00 BCRA Cave Science Seminar:
Sulfuric Acid Speleogenesis: how can we recognize it and what can it teach us?
With: Jo De Waele, Professor, Dept. of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sci., University of Bologna, Italy
Although sulphuric acid caves (SAS Caves) have been known of for over two centuries (Socquet described a SAS cave in Aix-les-Bains in 1801), these caves were considered as "geological oddities". They rank among the "hypogene" caves and are important for the understanding of void formation not directly connected to present-day meteorology and surface morphology (e.g., hydrocarbon reservoirs, Mississippi valley type Pb-Zn ore deposits). Since the discovery of Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico and Movile Cave in Romania (both in 1986) speleological and karstological research has intensified and many more SAS caves have been discovered and recognized.
Today over 90 SAS cave occurrences have been reported around the world, and their number is increasing steadily as cavers have started to recognize their typical morphologies and by-products. This talk, prepared in collaboration with Ilenia Maria D'Angeli, will show the distribution of SAS caves in the world, the different typologies, their unique morphology and by-products, their role in understanding landscape evolution, and their intriguing microbiology and biology.
Cave and Karst Science. The final issue for 2024 (vol 51, number 3) should have arrived to those who request a printed copy . Otherwise, it is available online on the BCRA website where there is information on how to download a copy.
CREG (Cave Radio and Electronics Group ) Journal issue 128 (December 2024) is now available online and as a printed version . This journal is not available as part of BCRA membership but needs to be ordered separately through the BCRA website.
Derbyshire Explorers Forum. The Forum which was held in a packed Mechanics Institute in Eyam on 1st February was a really excellent event. Every one of the talks by those involved in active cave exploration contained elements of great interest to cave scientists – although sadly there were few of us present. It would be great if BCRA could sponsor similar events, but we need volunteers with the enthusiasm of Rob Eavis and the Eldon Pothole Club to make it happen!
2025 BCRA Science Symposium and AGM The 2025 science symposium and AGM will be held in the School of Geographical Sciences at Bristol University, hosted by Linda Wilson and Dave Richardson, on the weekend of 11/12 October 2025. The BCRA AGM will be held at lunchtime on the 11th . Further information will follow in the March newsletter.
2025 Hidden Earth Update The dates for Hidden Earth have been announced as 26th-28th September 2025. Please check with the Hidden Earth media outlets and website [ https://hidden.earth/# ] for further information . If you wish to submit a lecture/presentation / workshop ,you can now do this on the Hidden earth website . Details of the various competitions are also available on the website.
Bid for 2029 UIS (Union Internationale de Speleologie) Congress. The UIS hosts an International Congress of Speleology every four years and this is the worlds most significant gathering of cave and karst scientists, educators ,managers and explorers. The 19th Congress will be held in Brazil this July and it is not too late to register (see https://speleo2025.org/). The BCA and BCRA are putting in a bid in to host the 20th Congress in 2029 and a team of volunteers has been assembled to put the bid together:
President - Andy Eavis
Vice President, Science and Publications - John Gunn
Vice President, Caving (including Pre and Post Congress excursions) - Rostam Namaghi
Secretary - Dave Jones
Treasurer - Bill Nix
Entertainment Manager - Les Williams
International Union of Speleology Link- Ged Campion.
Venue Coordinators - Jointly Andy Eavis and Ged Campion.
Promotional material - Lucy Hyde.
Promotional Video - Bartek Biela.
IT co-ordinator - Gary Douthwaite
If the bid is successful we will need many more volunteers to make the event happen and we will provide an update with contact details in the March Newsletter.
BCRA membership .If you have not already renewed your membership then please do so. The Just Go membership system is now fully operational so when you renew your BCA membership it will be easy to add on BCRA membership. If you encounter any issues with your membership, please contact Katie Eavis [membership@british-caving.org.uk]. Please could those who have contact with student caving clubs remind them that for students (defined as under-18s or full-time undergraduates) membership of BCRA is free if they join BCA as a DIM.
The next BCRA council meeting will be held via zoom on the12th February 2025, 19.30 to 21.00 Further information is available on the BCRA website
Supporting BCRA.
Members will note that due to an absence of volunteers there were no BCRA field meetings in 2024 and sadly we have no events scheduled for 2025. We encourage anyone willing to organise a meeting to contact the secretary. Further information regarding supporting BCRA is available at the following link https://bcra.org.uk/volunteer/index.html
IT Support
We have a specific task suitable to someone with experience of excel. The British Cave Science Centre at Poole’s Cavern (https://www.cave-science.org.uk/ ) is accumulating a large amount of data from a network of loggers. The data for each year from 2018 to 2022 has been entered into a calendar year excel file (see https://www.cave-science.org.uk/data) but we need a volunteer to prepare files for 2023 and 2024. If you feel that you can assist, please contact the secretary: bcra-secretary@bcra.org.uk
The March newsletter will be sent in late February.
Our Social media news outlets...
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/britishcaver
• BCRA News forum: http://bcra.org.uk/forum
• The Darkness Below https://darknessbelow.co.uk
• UK Caving http://ukcaving.com/board/?board=86.0
In this newsletter
The February BCRA online seminar
Cave and Karst Science 51(3)
CREG Journal 128
Derbyshire Explorers Forum
BCRA Science Symposium 2025
Hidden Earth 2025
Bid for 2029 UIS Congress
BCRA Membership
Next Council Meeting
Supporting BCRA
Monday 10th February , 19:30 to 21:00 BCRA Cave Science Seminar:
Sulfuric Acid Speleogenesis: how can we recognize it and what can it teach us?
With: Jo De Waele, Professor, Dept. of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sci., University of Bologna, Italy
Although sulphuric acid caves (SAS Caves) have been known of for over two centuries (Socquet described a SAS cave in Aix-les-Bains in 1801), these caves were considered as "geological oddities". They rank among the "hypogene" caves and are important for the understanding of void formation not directly connected to present-day meteorology and surface morphology (e.g., hydrocarbon reservoirs, Mississippi valley type Pb-Zn ore deposits). Since the discovery of Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico and Movile Cave in Romania (both in 1986) speleological and karstological research has intensified and many more SAS caves have been discovered and recognized.
Today over 90 SAS cave occurrences have been reported around the world, and their number is increasing steadily as cavers have started to recognize their typical morphologies and by-products. This talk, prepared in collaboration with Ilenia Maria D'Angeli, will show the distribution of SAS caves in the world, the different typologies, their unique morphology and by-products, their role in understanding landscape evolution, and their intriguing microbiology and biology.
Cave and Karst Science. The final issue for 2024 (vol 51, number 3) should have arrived to those who request a printed copy . Otherwise, it is available online on the BCRA website where there is information on how to download a copy.
CREG (Cave Radio and Electronics Group ) Journal issue 128 (December 2024) is now available online and as a printed version . This journal is not available as part of BCRA membership but needs to be ordered separately through the BCRA website.
Derbyshire Explorers Forum. The Forum which was held in a packed Mechanics Institute in Eyam on 1st February was a really excellent event. Every one of the talks by those involved in active cave exploration contained elements of great interest to cave scientists – although sadly there were few of us present. It would be great if BCRA could sponsor similar events, but we need volunteers with the enthusiasm of Rob Eavis and the Eldon Pothole Club to make it happen!
2025 BCRA Science Symposium and AGM The 2025 science symposium and AGM will be held in the School of Geographical Sciences at Bristol University, hosted by Linda Wilson and Dave Richardson, on the weekend of 11/12 October 2025. The BCRA AGM will be held at lunchtime on the 11th . Further information will follow in the March newsletter.
2025 Hidden Earth Update The dates for Hidden Earth have been announced as 26th-28th September 2025. Please check with the Hidden Earth media outlets and website [ https://hidden.earth/# ] for further information . If you wish to submit a lecture/presentation / workshop ,you can now do this on the Hidden earth website . Details of the various competitions are also available on the website.
Bid for 2029 UIS (Union Internationale de Speleologie) Congress. The UIS hosts an International Congress of Speleology every four years and this is the worlds most significant gathering of cave and karst scientists, educators ,managers and explorers. The 19th Congress will be held in Brazil this July and it is not too late to register (see https://speleo2025.org/). The BCA and BCRA are putting in a bid in to host the 20th Congress in 2029 and a team of volunteers has been assembled to put the bid together:
President - Andy Eavis
Vice President, Science and Publications - John Gunn
Vice President, Caving (including Pre and Post Congress excursions) - Rostam Namaghi
Secretary - Dave Jones
Treasurer - Bill Nix
Entertainment Manager - Les Williams
International Union of Speleology Link- Ged Campion.
Venue Coordinators - Jointly Andy Eavis and Ged Campion.
Promotional material - Lucy Hyde.
Promotional Video - Bartek Biela.
IT co-ordinator - Gary Douthwaite
If the bid is successful we will need many more volunteers to make the event happen and we will provide an update with contact details in the March Newsletter.
BCRA membership .If you have not already renewed your membership then please do so. The Just Go membership system is now fully operational so when you renew your BCA membership it will be easy to add on BCRA membership. If you encounter any issues with your membership, please contact Katie Eavis [membership@british-caving.org.uk]. Please could those who have contact with student caving clubs remind them that for students (defined as under-18s or full-time undergraduates) membership of BCRA is free if they join BCA as a DIM.
The next BCRA council meeting will be held via zoom on the12th February 2025, 19.30 to 21.00 Further information is available on the BCRA website
Supporting BCRA.
Members will note that due to an absence of volunteers there were no BCRA field meetings in 2024 and sadly we have no events scheduled for 2025. We encourage anyone willing to organise a meeting to contact the secretary. Further information regarding supporting BCRA is available at the following link https://bcra.org.uk/volunteer/index.html
IT Support
We have a specific task suitable to someone with experience of excel. The British Cave Science Centre at Poole’s Cavern (https://www.cave-science.org.uk/ ) is accumulating a large amount of data from a network of loggers. The data for each year from 2018 to 2022 has been entered into a calendar year excel file (see https://www.cave-science.org.uk/data) but we need a volunteer to prepare files for 2023 and 2024. If you feel that you can assist, please contact the secretary: bcra-secretary@bcra.org.uk
The March newsletter will be sent in late February.