Fort Stanton Cave Study Project: Science
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Fort Stanton Cave Study Project: Science |
 Bibliography: Fort Stanton Cave |
This list is growing and you may be able to help us identify additional publications, presentations, documentaries, etc. that we can add to this list. |
White Nose Syndrome: Decon at Fort Stanton Cave |
| WNS is a very serious disease that has been killing off bats in the Eastern states. If you come to a FSCSP project, expect to be asked if you have been in an infected area which you can discover HERE. We follow all the decontamination rules and usually have a state-of-the-art Hot Water Decon tank running at the HQ Building during an expedition. Additional WNS information is available HERE. Currently use of dedicated equipment is implemented by all visitors. |
| Hydrogeology Home Page in Ft. Stanton & Local Area |
| This section discusses the multiple water level data loggers that have been installed in the Snowy River section of Fort Stanton Cave since 2013. Sponsored by the 2012 BLM Assistance Agreement, these data loggers will provide new information that will help us understand where the water in Snowy River comes from, and how quickly it may flow after surface rain events on Sierra Blanca. |
Hydrology of the Fort Stanton Karst Area |
| Government Spring : Check back here as we add additional data and pictures. Following the July, 2012 flood (shortly after the June 2012 Little Bear fire in the Ruidoso area that burned ~ 38,000 acres and over 240 homes), Government Spring was covered with a foot of nasty black sludge that sealed the previously flowing spring. Plans are in work by the BLM to update the previous FSCSP weir just below the spring so that water flow can again be monitored. |
| We believe that at least some of the water that is "lost" along a stretch of Eagle Creek is a key part of the area hydrology. An observation was made on September 3, 2016, following a heavy rainstorm in the upper Eagle Creek area, and shows a potential insurgence to Snowy River. Several miles downstream from this area Eagle Creek was dry. |
| Temperature and Humidity Measurements: We continue to monitor data loggers in several caves and are working on showing new data as we correlate data from data loggers. |
| Water Data Loggers: During 2013 a dozen RT-100 data loggers were installed upstream from Government Spring along the 10 mile long Snowy River Passage. Since that time several other cave and surface sites have been established. |
| A Decade of Data Logging in Fort Stanton Cave and Snowy River: This report covers the majority of data logging in the cave and Snowy River over more than a decade. This is a 35 MB download of a 139 page pdf file published as a Fort Stanton Cave Study Project report on March 30, 2021. This is still a work-in-progress as future editions will include additional data logger data from 2022 plus comments and references from numerous hydrogeologists and other interested scientists and cavers that are all part of our team of volunteers and supporting agencies. |
Earth’s magnetic field is acting up and geologists don’t know why. But it is getting older! |
Surface Events in the NCA |
| Meteorites: Thanks to some information from Jansen Lyons, we have a link to El Capitan Iron, on a meteorite that was found over 120 years ago, possibly near Fort Stanton. The reference is to a large “iron” meteorite (mass: 27.5kg) named “El Capitan” that “…was found by a Mexican sheep herder, Julian Jesu, in July, 1893…”. Jansen reports that he even held a slice of it in Tuscon while visiting the International Gem and Mineral shows in recent years. it appears that the coordinates listed on the Meteoritic Society web page point to the east side of the Fort Stanton NCA (there is a Google Maps link on the web page). So, it is possible that the meteorite fell on land currently controlled by BLM. However, JJC has also found two other listed locations for the meteorite site that point to Forest Service land on the NE side of the Capitan Mountains, about 25km away. |
Weather Stations near Ft. Stanton |
| If you watch the video below you know that one of the main facets of Karst Topography is the rain and snow fall on the ground above the karst. At Fort Stanton we are fortunate to have Sierra Blanca just uphill from the karst and this peak attracts it's share of snow every winter. As the snow pack melts it feeds the nearby Rio Bonito which runs past the cave and finally joins some cave-fed springs including Government Spring. We use some of this weather station data to understand the ground water that interacts directly with the karst environment. |
Karst Topography: A Unique and Fragile Environment, by Albert Ogden |
| This 17:30 minute long educational presentation, produced by Dr. Albert Ogden at Middle Tennessee State University, is a very interesting video that discusses some of the unique environmental issues of karst limestone regions, the action of water runoff on the cave system below, the fragility of cave ecosystems, and also mentions some of the geophysical measurements that are being used to investigate karst areas including those in even dryer karst areas such as found at Fort Stanton. |
Woolly Mammoths and Fort Stanton Cave |
| Video Published on Nov 29, 2012 by Connect 111, the New Mexico PBS station What killed off the massive Woolly Mammoth and reshaped the earth? Scientist Dr. Victor Polyak and Professor Yemane Asmerom find evidence from an unlikely place, deep below the earth's surface in Fort Stanton Cave, that points to climate change. |
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