AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER Number 34 June 2011 AMCS Activities Newsletter Number 34 June 2011
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AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER Number 34 June 2011 AMCS acTIVITIES NEWSLETTER Number 34 June 2011 The AMCS Activities Newsletter is published by the Asso- ciation for Mexican Cave Studies, a Project of the National Speleological Society. The AMCS is an informal, nonprofit Front cover group dedicated to the exploration, study, and conserva- tion of the caves of Mexico. Alex Alvarez views bones at the bottom The Activities Newsletter seeks articles and news items on all of Hoyo Negro in significant exploration and research activities in the caves of Sistema Aktun Hu, Mexico. The editor may be contacted at the address below Quintana Roo. See or at [email protected]. Exceptional color photographs article on page 53. The for the covers are also sought. They need not pertain to marks on the rod are articles in the issue, but need to be high-resolutions scans 10 centimeters long. or digital originals. Photo, here printed as mirror image, by This issue was edited by Bill Mixon, with help from Yazmin Daniel Riordan. Avila, Jim Coke, Yvonne Droms, Rodolfo “Fofo” González, Jim Kennedy, Mark Minton, Laura Rosales, and Jack “Solo” Back cover White. Ricardo Pacheco in All previous issues of the Activities Newsletter are available, the entrance to Olbastl as are various other publications on the caves of Mexico. Koltik, Ocotempa, Contact [email protected], see www.amcs-pubs.org, Puebla. See article or write the address below. on page 81. Photo by Franco Attolini. ASSOCIATION FOR MEXICAN CAVE STUDIES BOX 7672 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78713 www.amcs-pubs.org © 2011 AMCS All rights reserved. Authors, photographers, and cartographers retain copyrights to their individual contributions. Printed in the United States of America. CONTENTS 5 Mexico News, compiled by Bill Mixon 43 Long and Deep Lists, compiled by Mark Minton 47 Sistema del Tercer Ojo, Peter Sprouse 53 Hoyo Negro, Alberto Nava Blank 59 Diving Tulum’s Chan Hol, Barbara Dwyer 65 Sistema Río La Venta, Chiapas: An Unforgetable Through-Trip, Tullio Bernabei and Francesco Sauro 75 Travesía El Semillero, Veracruz, Edgar Soto Valdéz and María de los Angeles Verde Ramírez 78 Exploring Tamakas Ecological Park, Alberto Nava Blank 81 Paisano 2001 Expedition, Gustavo Vela Turcott 87 Sistema Sac Actun 1987–2011, James G. Coke IV 91 Caribbean Coast Caving, Juan Laden 98 The Nineteen-Second Shaft: Múzquiz, Coahuila, Dan Green 103 La Cueva de Toscano: A Most Unusual Cave, John Pint 107 Caves of the Juquila Canyon Area, Oaxaca, Marco Mecchia and Leonardo Piccini 120 Michoacán-Colima Expedition, December 2010–January 2011, Peter Ruplinger 125 Pozo de Agua Verde, Peter Sprouse 129 Tabasco Underground, Laura Rosales Lagarde, Roberto Porter, Vickie Siegel, and Eladio Terreros Espinosa 136 Cave Bats of Tabasco, Cornelio Sánchez-Hernández and María de Lourdes Romero- Almaraz 140 Arthropod Ecology in Cueva de Las Sardinas, Tacotalpa, Tabasco, José G. Palacios- Vargas et al. 142 Microorganisms at Cueva de Las Sardinas, Diana Northup and Dan Jones 145 The Diamante Story: Four Years under the El Abra, Mark Minton (reprint) 152 Back to the Ombligo, Francesco Sauro 155 Mexico’s Caves and Caverns, PEMEX (reprint) 42 History: 1976 discoveries in San Agustín, Mark Stock 64 Story: Supercavers and Supercaves, Ergor Rubreck 86 Memory: Cheve 1990, Ian McKenzie 106 Song lyrics: The Encounter of the Long Count Keeper, Barb MacLeod 119 Book review: Blind Descent, Bill Mixon 123 Essay: The Experience, Roberto Rojo 144 Remembrance: Wes Skiles, Bill Stone 151 Book review: From Forests to Deserts, Bill Mixon 102,172 Cartoons: Jim Kramer NEWS Formations at –500 meters in Oztotl Altepetlacac, Ocotempa, Puebla. Gustavo Vela. AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 MEXIco NEWS Compiled by Bill Mixon as “How Does the Cave of the Crys- CHIapas tals Feel?” It concerns the impacts The expedition Chiapas 2009 of their current environment on the took place from April 2–7 on the crystals and the future of the room. left hydrographic side of the Río La It points out that keeping the Naica Venta, Mexico. The expedition had Mine dewatered for a year currently two main aims: to carry out a high- uses 100 million kilowatt-hours of quality photographic documenta- electricity, worth approximately 10 tion of Cueva del Río La Venta and million euros. Even though keep- complete the rigging and to resume ing the mine dry only to the depth the research in the northwest sector, of the Cave of the Crystals would interrupted in 1998. In all, counting cost a good bit less, it is unlikely to Italians, Spanish, Mexicans, and be practical to keep the room and Rumanians, thirty people took part the route to it dry after the mine’s in the expedition. This made the lo- ore is exhausted. gistics a bit heavy and complex, but on the other hand gave a large and A new cave at Naica, Cueva Pala- heterogeneous group of people the map in number 27.) The reports, cios, was intersected by a borehole opportunity to admire the wonders which are in French, contain many from the surface at a depth of 150 of the cave and the area in general. additional maps of smaller caves. meters. It is the largest cave known The expedition used as base camp The Web site also has an interactive there, but it contains no crystals the area that La Venta is acquiring Google-based cave-location map of because it was above the water table in order to protect and reforest it. the project area south of Tuxtla. when the crystals were forming in The photographic session saw the the other caves in the hill. Explora- participation of twenty-five people CHIHUAHUA tion was difficult due to the tempera- and lasted sixty-one hours, with two Kur Magazine number 10, June ture of 44.5°C (112°F) at the bottom cave camps. Source: Kur Magazine, 2008, pp. 16–23, contains an article of the shaft and 48°C (118°F) in the number 12, June 2009, p. 5. (See “Trenta mesi de Naica” article on the through-trip in Cueva (“Thirty Months of Naica”) One of the pumping stations that keep the del Río La Venta in this issue.) by Giovanni Badino sum- Cave of the Crystals at Naica dry. Giovanni Badino. marizing the beginnings of AMCS Activities Newsletter 27 the work by the La Venta contained in “Mexico News” a Esplorazione Geografiche summary of 2002 and 2003 projects group in the Cave of the in Chiapas by the Explorations Crystals at Naica. Articles Karstiques Sud-Américaines group, on the Cave of the Crys- mainly from the Spéléo Club de la tals are in AMCS Activities Seine in France and Grupo Jaquar in Newsletters number 25, pp. Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Reports on those 72–77, and number 30, pp. visits and additional ones in 2004 50–54. and 2005 are at http://eksa.free.fr. The tables of caves, location maps, Kur Magazine, published and maps of Sima del Tío Natán by the La Venta Esplorazione 2, Cueva Santo Domingo, and the Geografiche, has an article system Sumidero el Porvenir–Cueva in number 12 (June 2009) Romana published here are from titled “Come sta la Cueva those reports. (Sima del Tío Natán de Los Cristales?” Someone 2 has been extended since the 2002 translated that into English 5 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 6 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 7 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 8 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 9 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 10 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 narrow Galleria della Leggende. A There is a nice (if you’re willing The International Journal of Speleol- near-vertical crevice partly coated to deal with a Flash presentation ogy article “The Polygenetic Caves of with clay, the Colata di Fango, was with a menu that won’t stand still) Cuatro Ciénegas (Coahuila, Mexico): not descended due to lack of equip- collection of photos of the Cave of Morphology and Speleogenesis,” by ment and the generally difficult the Crystals in the Naica mine at Leonardo Piccini et al., 36(2)83–92, environment. Source: “L’esplorazione http://naica.com/mx/galeria_pc/ 2007, mentioned in Mexico News della Grotta Palacios nella Miniera de htm. Source: Mónica Ponce. in AMCS Activities Newsletter 31 Naica,” by Marc Beverly and Paolo can also be found at the La Venta Forti, Speleologia 63, December 2010, COAHUILA group’s website: http://laventa.it/ pages 54–57 (English abstract on The table of minerals identified in files/pubblicazioni/cuatrocienegas page 88). The same article contains caves in the vicinity of Cuatro Cié- _ijs_2007_63253.pdf. This version has maps of two small crystal-coated negas is from the technical supple- larger type and color illustrations. caves that are near the famous Cave ment to Kur Magazine number 1, of the Crystals in the mine. page 5, 2003. The October 2010 NSS News, pages • • 15–22, contains an article on recent 11 AMCS ACTIVITIES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 34 explorations on Mesa El Huisache Mortimer, Pedro Morales, and Edith interplay between Caribbean and below the Sierra Santa Rosa north- Cienfuegos. Pacific moisture sources, modulated west of Múzquiz. The article is by A paleoclimate reconstruction for by the North Atlantic SST and the Ellie Watson. See the article on the the Holocene based upon variations position of the ITCZ, where Pacific area by Dan Green in this issue. of δ18O in a U–Th dated stalagmite moisture becomes increasingly more from southwestern Mexico is pre- influential through ENSO since ~4.3 GUERRERO sented. Our results indicate that the ka. The interruption of stalagmite Abstract: “A speleothem record arrival of moisture to the area has growth during the largest climatic of Holocene climate variability been strongly linked to the input of anomalies of the Holocene (10.3 and from southwestern Mexico,” by glacial meltwaters into the North 8.2 ka) is evidenced by the presence Juan Pablo Bernal, Matthew Lach- Atlantic throughout the Holocene.