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Post by jonsdigs on Aug 20, 2007 17:31:26 GMT -5
Sulphur Cave yields scientific richesBy Mike McCollum Steamboat Springs Pilot Sunday, August 19, 2007 Donald Davis shows off a collection of elemental sulfur on a rock near a spring source on Howelsen Hill on Saturday morning. Davis and a group of scientists and cavers met to explore the Sulphur Cave on the side of Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs. Photo by Brian Ray Dr. Fred Luiszer, left, and Dr. Norman Pace take a reading of air quality at the entrance to the Sulphur Cave on Howelsen Hill during an expedition to explore and document the cave Saturday morning in Steamboat Springs. Photo by Brian RayCaver Mike Frazier of Colorado Springs emerges from the Sulphur Cave on Howelsen Hill during an expedition to explore and document the cave Saturday morning in Steamboat Springs. Photo by Brian RaySteamboat Springs — Along a hillside overlooking the baseball fields at Howelsen Hill, a group of cave aficionados of varying scientific professions met Saturday at the seldom-explored Sulphur Cave. The cave entrance, which resembles a sinkhole, descends about 15 feet into the soft limestone. Once in the cave, each scientist squeezed through a narrow, vertical passageway to enter a 6-foot-high chamber. “The idea is that we have a team of cavers who are going to survey the cave so we know the extent of it under the hill,” said Richard Rhinehart, editor of the Rocky Mountain Cave Journal, who was on hand Saturday. “Then another team will be doing geology, while another team will be doing microbiology to see what critters are living in here.” Full Story
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Brian Roebuck
Site Admin
Caver
Caving - the one activity that really brings you to your knees!
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Aug 20, 2007 21:54:31 GMT -5
Great article Jon! makes you want to drive back to Colorado and go Snottite hunting eh?
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 21, 2007 7:12:52 GMT -5
That is a good article Jon. Lots of well known cavers involved in that project. Good find!
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 23, 2007 8:46:23 GMT -5
Cavers search for rare and strange snottites August 22, 2007 STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Care to venture a guess as to what a snottite is? Before forming your answer, it may be useful to know that it's the sort of thing that cavers may seek. In this case, the cavers assembled in Steamboat Springs, and after a highly toxic gas called hydrogen sulfide was pumped from Sulfur Cave, entered it in search of these snottites. And the cave does have the snottites. They are, reports The Steamboat Pilot & Today, similar to stalactites, which hang tightly from cave ceilings. But the texture of a snottite is very different from a rigid stalactite. A snottite has -- here it comes -- the consistency of snot, or mucus. They are composed of single-celled bacteria. "As I blew on them, they'd start to sway back and forth," Mike Frazier, a caver, told the paper. Cavers said that a cave in Mexico also has the snottites. Article
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