Websites that work
Here are internet sites, videos, audio resources.
Worth looking at for learning about Caves, Limestones and Karst environments.
Karst
“Is the name for the geological structures that turn a land into a sieve. Where water rushes through thin soil and porous bedrock to seep into deep and hidden caverns and channels below.
Imagine swiss cheese or an elaborate labyrinth created by chemistry, physics and water as it restlessly seeks the path of least resistance over eons.
That water is essentially invisible to those above, bypassing the land and their needs.
Karst would have been a good name for a dragon. With its harsh and mighty sound.”
Brian Robertshaw. Circle of Blue (2010) Defined by Hidden Waters, Dragons in the Deep Video
(.49sec – 1.32 http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/video-china-karst/)
GNS describes our Karst landforms
http://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Landforms/Mysterious-Caves
Te Ara describes our landforms
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/limestone-country/page-2
A list of the many types of Karst environments found in the world
http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/karst/karst.html
Landcare Research Fact sheets on cave environments
SUBTERRANEAN OR SEMI-SUBTERRANEAN
Cave entrances —-Caves and cracks in karst ——–Sinkholes
Waitomo Karst is Unique in that we have POLYGONAL Karst features. A large amount of sinkholes (dolines) are connected together to form a honeycombed or egg carton depressions on the landscape. On a world scale we have many closely spaced sinkholes within some areas of Waitomo.
Other features of highlight are the mudstone caps and ignimbrite (volcanic) caps over the limestone creating differences in karst around Waitomo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst
http://www.limestone-pavements.org.uk/
http://www.speleogenesis.info/directory/glossary/
Videos and Interactives
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/A-Fizzy-Rock/Sci-Media/Animations-and-Interactives
http://www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/index.html
http://www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/diagram.html
http://www.watersheds.org/earth/karstmovie.htm
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/A-Fizzy-Rock/Sci-Media/Video/Features-of-the-karst-landscape
http://www.watersheds.org/earth/karstmovie.htm
Limestone to Caves
Limestone is the most common material that caves are found in. (Limestone chemically dissolves and wears easily over time, creating larger channels within the rock, leading to cave passages and chambers). Waitomo Limestone is between 28- 22 mya and is very compacted and crystaline. Very “pure” meaning having a large component of Calcium Carbonate present.
New Zealand’s largest caves are Nettlebed or Bulmer, or Gardners Gut in the North Island. http://caves.org.nz/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NZSS/LongestCaves
On the world stage we have some impressive cave systems. (A geologically young country). http://www.caverbob.com/wdeep.htm
Dissolving Rock
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/limestone-country/page-3
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/rock-limestone-and-clay/page-4
Find out about other types of caves
http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/
NZ longest caves
http://caves.org.nz/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NZSS/LongestCaves
Worlds longest caves
http://www.caverbob.com/wlong.htm
Speleothem. This is the name given to cave decorations formed mainly with the CaIcite mineral, deposited through limestone dissolution processes.
These are examples of speleothems. Stalactites—-Columns—Stalagmites—-Flowstone—–Shawls——Rimpools——–Helictite
http://www.ackma.org/decoration/calcite.html
http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/virtmap.html
Videos and Interactives
Hot rocks ( 15′ 3″ )
First 12 minutes on limestone forming to caves.
Drilling a core into the geologic cycle, limestone and karst country.
From Nights on 05 Nov 2009 http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2119637
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/A-Fizzy-Rock/Sci-Media/Animations-and-Interactives
Caving
Speleological (Caving) Society Websites
NZSS (NZ based) http://caves.org.nz/ NSS (USA based)http://caves.org/
Waitomo glowworm Cave 4 min look into the main Tourist cave
http://tvnz.co.nz/meet-the-locals/2007-episode-79-video-1883387
The world of extreme cavers
An article about the quest to go deeper and deeper
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/21/140421fa_fact_bilger?currentPage=all
View some cave divers in New Zealand’s Nettlebed cave. (221m still going deeper?)
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/video/11513/cave-diving#breadcrumbtop
http://www.wetmules.com/home/pearse-resurgence
Cave Base jump Parachute entering a tomo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocpuuaNwMSw#t=25
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0037bcq
The deepest cave in earth
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0505/feature4/multimedia.html
In Deep (The dark and dangerous world of caving)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/21/140421fa_fact_bilger?currentPage=all
http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/stories/1331605699551/cave-explorers
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/video/11513/cave-diving#breadcrumbtop
http://www.wetmules.com/home/pearse-resurgence
The Deepest cave in NZ
Finding a way through mostly dry passages of Mt Arthur (Near Motueka, Nelson)
Kieran McKay – New Zealand caver ( 7′ 45″ )
Kieran McKay is an outdoor pursuits instructor and one of New Zealand’s most accomplished cavers. He’s been caving for 30 years, since he was 14 and has linked up two cave systems under the Arthur Range. (Making this the deepest cave in NZ)
From Nine To Noon on 31 Jan 2014 from <http://www.radionz.co.nz/search/results?page=2&q=cave&utf8=%E2%9C%93>
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2584149
http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/news/events-0/2011/12/22/video-caving-gouffre-berger.
The cave was discover by Joseph Berger et ses compagnons Louis Eymas, Géo Mathieu et Marc Jouffray the 24 of May 1953.
SPELEO :GOUFFRE BERGER SIPHON -1122m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRk90a81yg
Floyd Collins (The first over all the USA media hyped event) -An ill fated rescue attempt over 2 weeks.
http://speleogen.com/trapped-or-the-ballad-of-floyd-collins-and-the-media/
Floyd Collins Ballad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-b7u4aUs_4 (1.32 long).
Videos and Interactives
Historic Caving Films
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/waitomo-1950
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/two-days-to-soft-rock-cafe-1983
Castles of the Underworld – New Zealand’s Limestone Areas. Wild South Natural History Unit. Running time 60 minutes. (Lots of footage inside the caves of Waitomo)
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/castles-of-the-underworld-1991
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/ghosts-of-gondwana-2001
The Waitomo Caves. Wild South Natural History Unit
Fossils
Mangapohue Giant Oyster Fossil description
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/A-Fizzy-Rock/Sci-Media/Animations-and-Interactives
http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/evolution/fossils.shtml
http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Education-and-Careers/Podcasts/Exceptionally-preserved-fossils
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa