Photohraphs of the tourist caves at Jenolan Caves

Jenolan Caves, just west of Sydney, on the east coast of Australia, are frequently described as one of the most spectacular and readily accessible limestone cave systems in the world. This richly illustrated book reveals the stories of Jenolan Caves in in a fascinating mixture of historical photographs, informative illustrations, detailed maps, easy to read text, and stunning colour photographs. Each of the show caves is described in detail, including the iconic formations that make each one a treasure-house of crystal. However, not all of the Jenolan wonders are secreted underground. The immediate surrounds of the Caves are replete with abundant wildlife immersed in the uniquely Australian bushland. This book contains 13 details maps, 23 vibrant illustrations, 47 intriguing historical photographs, 199 full colour photos, and 72,000 words of engaging narration, spread over 7 Chapters, 3 Appendices, and extensive Endnotes. Chapter 1. Introduction to Jenolan Caves Chapter 2. Hidden in the Mountains. (Location, rivers, land use, geology, climate, vegetation.) Chapter 3. Caves- Rocks, Water and Time. (Formation of the Caves over the last 416 million years.) Chapter 4. Cave Formations- Speleothems (How the great variety of cave formations come about.) Chapter 5. Experiencing the Caves Over Time. (Aboriginal and European discovery and use of the Caves.) Chapter 6. The Show Caves of Jenolan. Chapter 7. The Jenolan Surrounds. (Flora and Fauna, including extinct megafauna, and 'missing' animals.) Appendix 1. Gundungurra Dreamtime Story Appendix 2. Cave Chemistry Appendix 3. Dating Jenolan Caves Suggested Further Reading Endnotes

The Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science contains 350 alphabetically arranged entries. The topics include cave and karst geoscience, cave archaeology and human use of caves, art in caves, hydrology and groundwater, cave and karst history, and conservation and management. The Encyclopedia is extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams, and tables, and has thematic content lists and a comprehensive index to facilitate searching and browsing.

For generations, enterprising people in the southern Appalachians have turned the region's extensive network of caves into a strange, fascinating genre of tourist attraction. Visitors pay admission to take a tour deep underground, learning a little about history and geology while puzzling over lit-up rock formations said to resemble anything from Niagara Falls to the Capitol dome. Then off go the lights, enveloping the travelers in total darkness--until the guide flips them back on and welcomes folks back into the safety of the inevitable gift shop. Show caves, as Douglas Reichert Powell explains in Endless Caverns, are at once predictable and astonishing, ancient and modern, eerie and sentimental. Their story sparks memories of a fleeting cool moment deep underground during a hot summer vacation, capturing in microcosm the history and culture of a region where a deeply rooted sense of place collides with constant change. Reichert Powell takes readers along on his journey through the past and present of Appalachia's show caves, highlighting the characters who have owned and operated them, the ways the attractions have developed and changed over the years, and the odd intrigue that still leads people to buy their ticket and head underground. Tourist tastes may shift as interstates whisk travelers past the backroads and on to trendier destinations, but the show cave--like Appalachia itself--endures.

The Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science contains 350 alphabetically arranged entries. The topics include cave and karst geoscience, cave archaeology and human use of caves, art in caves, hydrology and groundwater, cave and karst history, and conservation and management. The Encyclopedia is extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams, and tables, and has thematic content lists and a comprehensive index to facilitate searching and browsing.

The Jenolan Caves contain some of the most remarkable and beautiful objects in Australian wonderland. They are formed in a limestone "dyke," surrounded by magnificent scenery, and hide in their dark recesses natural phenomena of rare interest to the geologist, as well as of pleasurable contemplation by non-scientific visitors; while in and about them the moralist may find "—— tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything." To see these caves once is to create a lifelong memory. The pink and the white terraces of New Zealand, which before the recent eruptions attracted so many tourists, did not excel in splendour the caves at Jenolan. But it is common for people to go abroad to admire less interesting things than are to be found within easy distance of their starting point, and which, if they were a thousand miles away, would probably be regarded as worthy of a special pilgrimage. There are persons living two or three leagues from the caves who have never seen them, and who, if they embraced the opportunity for inspection, would possibly regard them with the kind of wonder with which they would gaze upon the transformation scene at a pantomime. And yet the most frequent entry in the visitors' book is that the caves are "grand beyond expectation," and in some of their principal features "indescribably beautiful."

The Natural Radiation Environment Symposium (NRE VII), the Seventh in the NRE series, which commenced forty years ago in 1963 at Rice University Texas, was held in Rhodes (Greece) in May 2002. During the intervening four decades the research work presented at these NRE Symposia has contributed to a deeper understanding of natural radiation and in particular of its contribution to human radiation exposures.It is clear from the quality and diversity of the 143 papers in this volume of Radioactivity in the Environment series that the study of the natural radiation environment is an active and continually expanding field of research. The papers in this volume fall into a number of main and topical research areas namely: - the measurement and behaviour of natural radionuclides in the environment - cosmic radiation measurement and dosimetry - the external penetrating radiation field at ground level - TENR (Technologically Enhanced Natural Radiation) and NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials) studies - assessment of the health effects of radon - regulatory aspects of natural radiation exposuresIn these papers the results of many new surveys of natural radionuclide levels in the environment and of improved methods of detection are described. While some of the natural radiation sources investigated are unmodified by human activity, many accounts are given here of exposures to natural sources which have been enhanced by technology. Such TENR and NORM exposures are shown to range from activities such as mining, oil and gas exploitation, the use of industrial by-products as building materials, to space travel to name but a few. In several cases quite high doses to some individuals are shown to occur. Accounts are given here of methods to prevent and reduce exposures to such sources.

Caves are exciting places to visit, whether you are a tourist, a sporting caver or a scientist in one of the many disciplines which use caves as natural laboratories. This book comprehensively reviews what we presently know about Australia's caves including the varieties of cave types and how they form, cave fauna, fossils, Aboriginal relics and decorations in caves, and a history of cave exploration and cave science in Australia.