2021 is the International Year of Caves and Karst, and we are happy to offer a series of (online) seminars about cave science. Join the “The Cave Show” from your own home.
On May 26 (Wednesday), 8:30pm (GMT+1) join us for the webinar ‘Let’s follow that river underground (are all caves carved by river?)’, by Dr. Jo De Waele, Full Professor, Italian Institute of Speleology, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BIGEA), Geology Division, University of Bologna, Italy).
The webinar takes place on YouTube, HERE: https://youtu.be/7lZ-Qj_-tUI
Caves are always depicted as rivers disappearing underground. Cave explorers are taught to “follow the rivers”, and “tracing the unground water flow”.
Underground rivers are the essence of caving. But is this always true? This seminar will show how caves and speleology are dealt with in the geological community. And, despite the fact that ideas in the cave science community have progressed a lot in the last 20 years, how little the different speleogenetic theories are known among geologists and cavers. Karst scientists are still seen as crazy people, having fun getting dirty in the mud, and karst and caves are still not being taken seriously enough. Cavers and cave scientists have to let the whole community (scientific and not) know about the importance of karst in many fields (practical and scientific). The International Year of Caves and Karst is only the beginning.
“The Cave Show” is a series of (online) seminars about why are caves important, why it is important to study and protect caves, but also about our passion for caves, which drive much of our research activities. It is included in the celebrations of the International Year of Caves and Karst. Stay tuned to know about the next Cave Show seminars!
Brief CV of Dr. Jo De Waele:
Dr. Jo De Waele (b. Deinze, 1968) graduated in Geology at the University of Ghent (Belgium). He made his PhD in Mineral Prospection at the Department of Engineering Geology and Environmental Techniques (DIGITA) of the University of Cagliari (Italy). He is currently Full Professor in Physical Geography and Geomorphology at the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Bologna Alma Mater (Italy). Jo is specialised in speleogenesis, karst geomorphology and hydrogeology and palaeoclimate studies in karst areas. The results of his researches have been published in >200 scientific papers since 1993. Jo is the scientific coordinator of the CAVES astronaut training course of the European Space Agency since 2011. He is Editor (from 2005) of the “International Journal of Speleology” (ISSN 0392-6672) and editorial board member of Geomorphology (Elsevier).
