Cave and Karst News for December 2023 | |
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Upcoming online events and deadlines:
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Call for Papers: Asian Trans-Disciplinary Karst Conference Call, December 31, 2023
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Grant: Cleveland Grotto, December 31, 2023
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Call for Proposals: Fort Stanton, January 8, 2024
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Applications: Summer Scientist in Parks, January 21, 2024
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Scholarship: The William L. Wilson and Diane C. Wilson Scholarship, February 15, 2024
NCKRI would like to wish you well this holiday season and as we prepare for the many events this upcoming year! Especially the cave and karst related professional opportunities with the NPS Scientist in Parks program. NCKRI would also like to spotlight our recent retiree Lewis Land and his contributions over the many years.
If you would like add any upcoming events, deadlines or news, email us at info@nckri.org or reply to this email.
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21st International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology
Galapagos, Ecuador
April 10-20, 2024
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6th Rocky Mountain Geobiology Symposium
Socorro, New Mexico, USA
April 20, 2024
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Deadline:
February 15, 2024
Amount:
$2,500
Questions:
jherman@virginia.edu
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Funding Opportunity:
William L. Wilson and Diane C. Wilson Scholarship in Karst Science
The scholarship ($2500) is open to any student who is currently enrolled in, or has been accepted into, a master’s degree program at an institution of higher education in the United States. This year’s deadline for all application materials is February 15, 2024.
Guidelines
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Deadline:
January 21, 2024
Weekly Stipends:
$525-$625
Questions:
https://www.scientistsinparks.org/
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Summer Scientist in Parks applications are open! All opportunities close on January 21, 2024. This year there are multiple positions that are related to caves and karst in National Parks. Check your eligibility before applying. Start dates vary from May to September 2024.
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NCKRI would like to highlight some Dr. Lewis Land’s accomplishes in honor of his retirement which was effective Dec 1, 2023.
Lewis is the longest serving member of NCKRI’s staff, which started in June 2002 when he was hired by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources as their karst hydrologist and liaison with the fledgling National Cave and Karst Research Institute, to be located in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Lewis started work in Carlsbad in borrowed office space with nothing more than a desktop computer and a Chevy Blazer for fieldwork. He was the only staff person for over six months until NCKRI’s first director was hired the following year. Over the course of his 21 years with the Institute, Lewis established himself as an authority on water resources in the extensive karstic aquifers of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas. Lewis’s research has included a basin-scale investigation of long-term variations in water levels in the karstic artesian aquifer of the Roswell Artesian Basin; groundwater residence time in the Artesian Basin and southern Sacramento Mountains; evaporite karst phenomena in New Mexico and west Texas; and brackish water resources in karstic and non-karstic aquifers throughout New Mexico.
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Lewis’s outreach to the broader geological community includes organizing and leading two field conferences for the New Mexico Geological Society on caves and karst in southeastern New Mexico, in 2006 and 2023. Lewis has also participated for over ten years in organizing and editing proceedings for the Sinkhole Conference, a conference that has been hosted by NCKRI since 2013. Lewis has published the results of his research in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including Groundwater, the Journal of Hydrology, the Journal of the American Water Resources Association, the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies and even the 2014 Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year. | | |
In a previous lifetime, Dr. Land spent eight years in the petroleum industry in the 1980s exploring for new oil reserves in the Mid-Continent/Rocky Mountain regions of the US, and offshore West Africa. He received his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999, where his doctoral research included submersible investigations of submarine sinkholes in the Straits of Florida. Although he announced his retirement last year, he has told his colleagues multiple times that he doesn’t really feel like he’s retired yet. Lewis is looking forward to honing his skills as a consultant, however, this holiday season he’s been having too much fun to pursue them so far. | | |
New Mexico Tech Cave and Karst Studies | |
Seminar Series
Hypogene Speleogenesis of Guadalupe Mountains and Grand Canyon: A Comparison
By Carol Hill, University of New Mexico
On November 16th, Carol Hill presented to New Mexico Tech students in Socorro, New Mexico on her work in the Grand Canyon and caves in the Guadalupe Mountains such as Carlsbad Caverns.
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ABSTRACT:
Both the phreatic caves in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and those in the Grand Canyon of Arizona are hypogene in origin. This means that the acid that dissolved these caves did not come from above (the surface; epigene), but came from below (hypogene). In both cases the source of the H2S was from hydrocarbons in the subsurface: in the case of the Guadalupes, from hydrocarbons in the nearby Delaware Basin, and in the case of the Grand Canyon, from the PreCambrian Chuar Formation. Earlier in time, these same sources of H2S to each region, caused ore deposits to deposit in structural and stratigraphic traps: in the Guadalupes, the Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) ores located directly below anticlines and the Yates sandstone; and in the Grand Canyon, the copper-uranium ores within the breccia pipes, where master joints were avenues for gas ascension into the Mooney Falls Member of the Redwall Limestone.
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Introduction to Cave Geology (GEOL0289) Field Trip
On November 18, 2023 New Mexico Tech students as part of their Introduction to Cave Geology class, traveled to El Malpais National Monument to learn more about the formation of lava tubes, cave environments, and geology. Students also assisted in data sampling for microbial research projects.
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Help us in our search by nominating qualified individuals.
New Mexico Tech seeks a dynamic and entrepreneurial-minded leader to serve as the Director of the National Cave and Kast Research Institute (NCKRI). The leader will ensure the Institute’s focus in the following functional areas: further the science of speleology; centralize and standardize speleological information; foster interdisciplinary cooperation in cave and karst research programs; promote public education; promote national and international cooperation in protecting the environment for the benefit of cave and karst land forms; and promote and develop environmentally sound and sustainable resource management practices. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Research the selected hire will oversee all facets of Institute management and planning.
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Here are some of the upcoming cave and karst related events. You can also add this google calendar. If you would like an event added, contact info@nckri.org. | |
The National Cave and Karst Institute is a research center of New Mexico Tech. NCKRI was created in partnership with the National Park Service, State of New Mexico, and the City of Carlsbad to be a nexus of research, stewardship, information and outreach for caves and karst while fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. Our mission is to promote and facilitate cave and karst research, education and sustainability. | | | | |
