UIS Commission on Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis

Since the early stages in the development of human kind, caves were used as mines to extract minerals impossible to find at the surface.

Later, mining activities, digging galleries underground, allowed to reach a peculiar type of natural cavities, the so called “mine caves”, that would otherwise be impossible to explore and study. These cavities, which are particularly widespread within carbonate formations, were known since the antiquity but they started to be studied only very recently. Mine caves have shown to be extremely important in several research fields: from speleogenesis to cave mineralogy, from history of mining activities to cave tourism, just to cite the most important ones. A first Symposium on mine caves was held in Iglesias in 2004 giving a strong impulse to the research, which flourished in the following years not only in Italy but also in many Countries abroad. For these reasons the Sardinian Geomining and Historical Environmental Park, together with the Sardinian Speleological Federation and the Italian Institute of Speleology decided to organize a Second International Symposium on Mine Caves to discuss the latest achieved results in this field all around the World.

Date and Venue

25- 29 April 2012 Iglesias (Sardinia)
(Depending on organizing problems, dates are provisional: the final dates will be fixed in the near future and they may change from 1-2 days before or later of the actually fixed dates).

Tentative programme

April 26th All day Arrival and registration of the Participants

April 27th Morning Welcome by the Local Authorities

  • Invited talks
  • Afternoon The Naica Caves
  • Evening Film show on Naica

April 28th

  • All day Invited talks and presentations on mine caves of the world
  • Evening Official dinner

April 29th

  • All day Excursions in the Iglesiente mine caves
  • End of the Symposium and departure of the participants


Abstracts

Participants are encouraged to submit abstracts on any topic related to mine caves. An abstract of a maximum of 500 words must be submitted to the Scientific Committee. Oral and poster presentation will be accepted. Oral presentation will normally last 15 minutes each. After the Symposium the presentations, accepted by the Scientific Committee, will be printed in a special issue of the International Journal of Speleology.

Costs

The registration fee of 100 € allows to participate to the symposium sessions, excursions and dinner and to receive the book of abstracts.

Important dates

  • Abstract submission deadline January 31st 2012
  • Confirmation of acceptance February 20th 2012
  • Final papers July 3th 2012


Contacts

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.