July 01, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Three researchers from Western Kentucky University’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute were part of a nine-person mapping expedition to the Isla de Mona, often referred to as the “Galapagos of the Caribbean.”
Pat Kambesis (expedition co-leader and Hoffman assistant director), Dr. John All (assistant professor in WKU’s Department of Geography and Geology) and Narcisa Pricope (WKU master’s in geoscience graduate and Ph.D. candidate at University of Florida) were part of a team that spent 10 days in June documenting caves and related features on the northwest coast of the island.
For the past eight years, the Hoffman Institute has been working with Puerto Rico’s Departmento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientale (DRN) to inventory and survey caves and related coastal karst features and other natural resources of Isla de Mona. The island, which has been designated as a natural reserve, is located 42 miles west of Puerto Rico and is situated within the 1,500-foot-deep Mona Trench, a feature that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea.
Isla de Mona contains the largest, most extensive flank margin caves in the world and is often referred to as the “Galapagos of the Caribbean” because of its ecological, historical, cultural and cave features. The island is home to several endangered reptiles and birds, many of which use the caves for habitat. Also contained within the caves are the remnants of extensive historical guano mining operations and Pre-Columbian petroglyphs and pictographs.
Based at DRN’s Sardinara field station, the WKU researchers mapped more than 6,000 feet of cave passages, discovered 30 new caves and continued to document historical signatures, guano mining operations, archeological sites and bat habitats. New caves of geologic significance included several sea caves and small flank margin caves located within Pleistocene-age reef rock (most of the island’s caves are formed in older Miocene-aged rocks). Previously undocumented guano mining operations were also surveyed and photographed in these flank margin caves.
To date, Hoffman Institute researchers and students have been involved in documenting more than 30 miles of cave passages in 79 different caves on the island and have completed field work that has inventoried all of the guano mining operations on the south side of the island.
The data and results from all expeditions are provided to DRN, which uses that information in the management and preservation of the caves and karst features and other natural resources of the island. Next year, in addition to cave surveys and resource inventory, the Hoffman Institute will be participating in DRN’s hydrologic inventory of springs and underwater caves located on the north coast of the island.
More information about the Hoffman Institute is available online at http://hoffman.wku.edu/
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Hoffman Institute at (270) 745-3961.
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