If you have not yet contemplated submitting an abstract for the upcoming First International Planetary Caves workshop to be held in Carlsbad, NM from Oct. 25-28 of this year, the time is now! August 9, next Tuesday, is the deadline and LPI is extremely unforgiving of late abstracts meaning we cannot accept any past the Aug. 9 deadline (5:00 p.m. U.S. Central Daylight Time (GMT-5).

The meeting is jointly sponsored by:

- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Astrogeology Science Center
- Universities Space Research Association (USRA)/ Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI)
- National Cave and Karst Research Institute
- NASA Mars Program Office

Topics to be considered include:

- Cave Definitions/Categories
- Definition, classification, and types — What is a cave?
- Cave formation mechanisms (extraterrestrial speleogenetic mechanisms)

- Astrobiology and Cave Biodiversity
- Microbiology of caves on Earth with astrobiological significance
- Cave biosignatures (fossils, biotextures, geochemical traces, isotopic signals, etc.)

- Cave Microclimates
- Micrometeorology of caves, processes observable in Earth caves, and modelable as applicable to extraterrestrial caves
- Paleoclimate signals in caves, the planetary potential for similar data

- Cave Detection
- Orbital methods
- Landed methods

- Cave Exploration (Robotic) Techniques and Mapping
- Remote methods
- Human utilization of extraterrestrial caves on Moon and Mars
- Cave Funding Sources

Complete details can be found here.

Cheers,

Penny Boston
Tim TItus
Kaj Williams