National Cave and Karst Research Institute

08/24/2026

**Important Update**
The Geology of Howe Caverns field trip has been moved to the morning (7:30 AM – 1:00 PM).

Please be ready to board the bus at the Albany Capital Center entrance at 7:30 AM. Contact Valerie Davis ([email protected]) if this change affects your availability or allows you to join.

Learn more at sinkholeconference.com
18th Sinkhole Conference

08/21/2026

Cave Science in Action:
Sometimes cave science means working outside the cave!

NCKRI’s professional intern Matthew Kaspar has been leading a long-term research project assessing groundwater discharge behavior at Government Spring, a part of the Fort Stanton Cave aquifer in Central New Mexico. Every month for the past year, Matthew, Dr. Maggie Furtner, and other NCKRI colleagues have been visiting the field site at the same stretch of the Rio Bonito River, taking flow and water quality measurements at multiple stations.

The goals of this research are:
💧To better understand the interactions between the spring groundwater and the river surface water.

📅Examine how these interactions vary seasonally.

08/19/2026

Today's Karst Spotlight is on the karst of McKittrick Hill, a Bureau of Land Management Special Recreation Management Area west of Carlsbad New Mexico. These caves are near the larger Guadalupe Mountains karst region but formed within bedding of the back-reef. Specifically McKittrick Hill is within the Azotea Mesa in a folded and fractured arch called the Waterhole Anticlinorium. Like their counterparts in nearby Carlsbad Caverns National Park, caves on McKittrick Hill are believed to be dissolved from the bottom up by sulfuric acid.

Caves on McKittrick Hill are known to be relatively dry, mazey and contain unique features such as gypsum vents, pisolites and suspected biothems (pictured in title photo). While some of these caves were subjected to vandalism - newspaper accounts over a century ago contain phrases like “…it was all each one could do to climb the ladders, so loaded down with souvenirs of every size and description…” - they still offer exciting opportunities for recreation and research.

This July NCKRI used a handheld laser scanner to map part of Sand Cave. The pictured 22 minute entrance to entrance scan will be used to create a centimeter scale three-dimensional record which is valuable for understanding how these caves form and documenting impacts and restoration.

Bureau of Land Management - New Mexico

To find out more information about the caves of McKittrick Hill and other caves managed by the BLM Carlsbad Field Office go to:
https://www.blm.gov/visit/carlsbad-field-office-recreational-caves

08/17/2026

Water Quality Month continues with this Cave and Karst Word of the Week, volumetric flow rate. This term which is commonly abbreviated as ‘Q’ is the volume amount of water flowing through a given area during a specific amount of time. It is calculated using the equation Q = A*v where A is the area of the fluid's cross section, and v is the velocity the fluid is moving at. The SI unit for volumetric flow rate is cubic meters per second (m³/s).

This concept is used in a wide range of disciplines from engineering to environmental sciences. In karst science, it's commonly used to estimate the amount of water flowing through rivers, waterways, and groundwater systems.

However when calculating the flow of groundwater systems, additional variables may need to be taken into account, such as hydraulic conductivity due to water’s interactions with the medium it is flowing through. Darcy’s Law expands on the principles of volumetric flow by factoring in permeability (𝑘) of the rock and pressure exerted by the water (hydraulic head) over a given distance.

08/14/2026

08/11/2026

Submit a Karst Clip and present at the 18th Sinkhole Conference in Albany, New York. Join in the conversation to help solve karst problems!

There are still slots available to present a Karst Clip. Karst Clips are short (5-minute) presentations that are perfect for sharing recent projects or works in progress. Go to sinkholeconference.com to find out more!

08/10/2026

Last week we learned about dye tracing, and this week the is as we continue our celebration of National Water Quality Month.

A dye receptor (often called a “bug”) is usually made of a small bag of activated charcoal. The charcoal is nonreactive and has an extremely large surface area due to microscopic pores. These pores act as binding sites for many chemicals due to carbon’s electrostatic properties (Van der Waals forces are a weak attraction between molecules from an intermolecular force due to small charge differences). There are different types of activated charcoal. When creating a dye receptor, pore size is taken into account, so that it is small enough to exclude unwanted molecules but large enough to collect the dye molecule.

To learn more about dye tracing and receptors read:
“Kentucky Geological Survey Procedures for Groundwater Tracing Using Fluorescent Dyes”:
https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/IC26_12.pdf

08/05/2026

August 6th is the last day to submit abstracts!
https://connects.geosociety.org/

08/04/2026

In celebration of National Water Quality month and to highlight the importance of karst groundwater we would like to share with you this cave science snack that investigates the movement of organic matter through karst aquifers:

Characterization of dissolved organic matter in cave and spring waters using UV–Vis absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy by Justin E. Birdwell & Annette Summers Engel
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2009.11.002

Birdwell and Engel (2010) demonstrated that combining ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) absorbance with fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy is a powerful way to characterize dissolved organic matter (DOM) in cave and spring waters. Their work showed that karst waters contain a mixture of terrestrial organic matter transported from surface soils and vegetation, as well as organic matter produced by microbial activity within the aquifer. Because DOM changes with recharge, flow paths, and microbial processing, fluorescence spectroscopy provides valuable insight into groundwater movement, carbon cycling, and water quality. This research gives us powerful tools to evaluate groundwater threats, monitor water quality and protect karst resources.

NCKRI uses fluorescence spectroscopy to trace carbon sources, biogeochemical processes, and contaminants in karst systems.

To learn more about National Water Quality Month:
https://nationalwaterqualitymonth.org/

08/03/2026

Continuing our celebration of National Water Quality Month, here is our Cave and Karst Word of the Week: Dye Trace.

A dye trace (or tracer study) is a method used to determine where groundwater travels by introducing a harmless fluorescent dye into a sinkhole, sinking stream, or other recharge feature, then tracking it with receptors placed downstream. This reveals where the water travels, how long it takes, and the environmental conditions along its path.

Even though dye traces reveal where water flows today, other complementary techniques can uncover long-term connections and changes within the aquifer. These qualities make dye tracing a powerful tool for understanding groundwater systems and threats to those systems.
(https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5338/11/2/23)

To learn more about dye tracing check out the Karst Waters Institute’s video: Dye Tracing Roaring River Springs
https://youtu.be/NOMZkiDNp9M?si=8ihDPG2pLa3fmcEX