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Speleologists
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). The term ''speleology'' is also sometimes applied to the recreational activity of exploring caves, but this is more properly known as ''caving'', ''potholing'' (British English), or ''spelunking''. Speleology and caving are often connected, as the physical skills required for ''in situ'' study are the same. Speleology is a cross-disciplinary field that combines the knowledge of chemistry, biology, geology, physics, meteorology, and cartography to develop portraits of caves as complex, evolving systems. History Before modern speleology developed, John Beaumont wrote detailed descriptions of some Mendip caves in the 1680s. The term speleology was coined by Émile Rivière in 1890. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century the scientific v ...
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International Union Of Speleology
International Union of Speleology (french: links=no, Union Internationale de Spéléologie, UIS) is a scientific non-governmental organization dedicated to the international promotion and coordination of cave and karst research. Founded in 1965, UIS is a member of the International Science Council in Paris and cooperates with UNESCO. In 2021-2022, UIS organized the ''International Year of Caves and Karst''. History The international speleological community, mostly Europeans, agreed in a meeting in 1949 in Valence-sur-Rhone, France, to hold international speleological congresses beginning in Paris in 1953. These efforts continued during the Cold War. At the 4th International Congress of Speleology in Postojna/Ljubljana (1965), a group of speleologists proposed to establish an association that would bring together scientists and cavers on both sides of the Iron Curtain and coordinate their activities. At the closing ceremony of this congress, the UIS was finally launched. Howe ...
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Société De Spéléologie
The French Federation of Speleology (, FFS), is a French organisation that represents all persons practicing or studying caving and canyoning and promotes the study and conservation of caves. It was formed in 1963 by the amalgamation of two organisations, the (CNS), or National Committee of Speleology, and the (SSF), or Speleological Society of France. History Société de spéléologie (1895–1914) Founded by Édouard-Alfred Martel in 1895, the was the first organisation of its kind in Europe. Between 1895 and 1900 the society published a journal entitled ''Spelunca''. The society folded in 1914 at the start of World War I. Spéléo-club de France (1930–1936) After the First World War, French speleology was represented mainly by Norbert Casteret and Robert de Joly, who continued the interrupted work of Martel's . On 18 March 1930, an organisational meeting led to the creation of the , whose headquarters were set up at Montpellier, in the headquarters of the Department of ...
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Édouard-Alfred Martel
Édouard-Alfred Martel (1 July 1859, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise – 3 June 1938, Montbrison), the 'father of modern speleology', was a world pioneer of cave exploration, study, and documentation. Martel explored thousands of caves in his native France and many other countries, popularised the pursuit of cave exploration, introduced the concept of speleology as a distinct area of scientific study, maintained an extensive archive, and in 1895 founded , the first organisation devoted to cave science in the world. Life and Exploration Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in Pontoise, Seine-et-Oise on 1 July 1859. Born into a family of lawyers, he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. Early on, he became passionate about geography and the natural sciences and in 1877 he won first prize in an open competition for geography. He was a great reader of the works of Jules Verne. In 1866, while holidaying with his parents, he visited the Caves of Gargas in the Pyrenees. Other trips allowed him ...
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John Beaumont (geologist)
John Beaumont (c. 1650–1731) was an English physician and early geologist. Biography John Beaumont was a physician who lived in Ston Easton in Somerset. He was encouraged by Robert Hooke to study the natural history of Somerset but became more interested in witchcraft. He married Dorothy, daughter of John Speccott of Penheale, Egloskerry, Cornwall Geology John Beaumont sent four letters to the Royal Society, two in 1676, one in 1681 and another in 1683. The topics he touched upon included rock plants, ailments afflicting both cattle and miners, detailed descriptions of some Mendip caves, including Wookey Hole Caves and Lamb Leer Cavern. He was elected a Fellow of the society in May 1685. Experience of spirits I had two spirits, who constantly attended me, night and day, for above three months together, who called each other by their names; and several spirits would call at my chamber door, and ask whether such spirits lived there, and they would answer they did. As for ...
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Émile Rivière
Émile-Valère Rivière de Précourt (22 April 1835 - 25 January 1922) was a French physician and specialist in prehistory who conducted explorations of caves in the region for human remains. He was known for his cave research at Balzi Rossi in Ventimiglia in Liguria and La Mouthe in Dordogne. He coined the term speleology. He was a founder of the prehistory society of France (Société préhistorique française). Rivière was born in Paris where his father was a physician. He went to the Lycée Bonaparte and trained in medicine and interned at he Asile de Vincennes at Le Vésinet. From 1868 he lived in Cannes and from 1870 at Menton. He visited Baoussé-Roussé (Balzi Rossi) in Italy along with Stanislas Bonfils in 1869 and the finds were contributed to Bonfil's private museum. Repeat visits from 1870 led to the discovery of a human skeleton from the Upper Paleolithic known as the "Menton Man". Other skeletal finds followed. In 1877 he joined Léon de Vesly to the Vallée des Mer ...
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Hypogean
Hypogeal, hypogean, hypogeic and hypogeous (; ) are biological terms describing an organism's activity below the soil surface. In botany, a seed is described as showing hypogeal germination when the cotyledons of the germinating seed remain non-photosynthetic, inside the seed shell, and below ground.{{cite book, author1=Adrian D. Bell, author2=Alan Bryan, title=Plant Form: An Illustrated Guide to Flowering Plant Morphology, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SM3khPHXhKEC&pg=PA200, year=2008, publisher=Timber Press, isbn=978-0-88192-850-1, page=200 The converse, where the cotyledons expand, throw off the seed shell and become photosynthetic above the ground, is epigeal germination. In water purification works, the hypogeal (or Schmutzdecke) layer is a biological film just below the surface of slow sand filters. It contains microorganisms that remove bacteria and trap contaminant particles. The terms hypogean and hypogeic are used for fossorial ( burrowing) and troglobitic ...
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Solvation
Solvation (or dissolution) describes the interaction of a solvent with dissolved molecules. Both ionized and uncharged molecules interact strongly with a solvent, and the strength and nature of this interaction influence many properties of the solute, including solubility, reactivity, and color, as well as influencing the properties of the solvent such as its viscosity and density. If the attractive forces between the solvent and solute particles are greater than the attractive forces holding the solute particles together, the solvent particles pull the solute particles apart and surround them. The surrounded solute particles then move away from the solid solute and out into the solution. Ions are surrounded by a concentric shell of solvent. Solvation is the process of reorganizing solvent and solute molecules into solvation complexes and involves bond formation, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals forces. Solvation of a solute by water is called hydration. Solubility of solid ...
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Corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engineering is the field dedicated to controlling and preventing corrosion. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metal in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen, hydrogen or hydroxide. Rusting, the formation of iron oxides, is a well-known example of electrochemical corrosion. This type of damage typically produces oxide(s) or salt(s) of the original metal and results in a distinctive orange colouration. Corrosion can also occur in materials other than metals, such as ceramics or polymers, although in this context, the term "degradation" is more common. Corrosion degrades the useful properties of materials and structures including strength, appearance and permeability to liquids and gases. Many structural ...
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Karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface water, with few to no rivers or lakes. However, in regions where the dissolved bedrock is covered (perhaps by debris) or confined by one or more superimposed non-soluble rock strata, distinctive karst features may occur only at subsurface levels and can be totally missing above ground. The study of ''paleokarst'' (buried karst in the stratigraphic column) is important in petroleum geology because as much as 50% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are hosted in carbonate rock, and much of this is found in porous karst systems. Etymology The English word ''karst'' was borrowed from German in the late 19th century, which entered German much earlier ...
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Caver
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is the scientific study of caves and the cave environment.Caving in New Zealand
(from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Accessed 2012-11.)
The challenges involved in caving vary according to the cave being visited; in addition to the total absence of light beyond the entrance, negotiating pitches, squeezes,
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Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre of the ÃŽle-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,262,544 in 2019, or about 19% of the population of France, making the region France's primate city. The Paris Region had a GDP of €739 billion ($743 billion) in 2019, which is the highest in Europe. According to the Economist Intelli ...
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