ShowCaveBlog

CSI is a hype at the moment, there seems to be a spin of off the popular tv series mothly. But this is not a spin off, not even a tv series. CSI is the abbreviation of Cave Science Investigators.
This is an educational program at Fantastic Caverns. A group of investigators probes a cave vandalism incident. The evidence is an empty soda can, a can of spray paint, a muddy footprint, a smear of blood and smashed cave formations.
This is the latest of a series of science education sessions which is offered by the cave administration for twelve years now. It is intended for schoolkids. The programs change every three years, so there is time left to attend the interesting and educational program.

Scientists in Alaska discovered moonmilk in a cave. Sounded weird to us, as moonmilk is a rather common speleothem found in many caves. However, the article Southeast cave life chews through rock tells this.
We thought a while about this and what we guess is, the news interpretation shows simply that the writer did not understand the scientists.
Moonmilk is a white dripstone which contains a lot of tiny blisters, as a result it is light, full of water and rather soft. It seems the scientists found out that microorganisms are essential for its formation, and actually there are various theories how moonmilk is formed, and none is very good. The connection with microorganisms has been guessed before, but as far as we know there have been no successful examinations which support this theory so far. We will have an eye on future publications, actually this is an interesting topic.

The site of the abandoned Toburn Mine in Kirkland Lake in Canada will be transformed into a tourist site. The idea is to rent out some of the buildings to earn some money, which then will be spent to create a sort of information center for tourists and to clean the site.
As far as we understand it will not become a classical show mine with underground tours. It will be a passive site with signs and plates and probably trails. There will be no personnel or guides on site.