Cueva Tecolote Una Vez!

11 June 2009

Image: Tim and I pulling data off one of our instruments located on the surface. Credit: Lynn Hicks.

We will have to do a bit more hiking during this expedition, which is great; however, the longer hikes cut into our time in the field. The park recently closed most of the roads leading to the foothills containing our study caves. So, we have to park in one of two locations and then hike to the caves.

Image: Gearing up at the trailhead. We're just about to hike into the caves.

The sensor team moved to another cave today. We pulled data off the sensors in Barn Owl cave. We finished this by midday, which gave us a little time to explore this cave.

The mapping team required two days to collect volume data and map of Luna y Media. One of our team members became mildly ill while mapping this cave. We suspect it could be related to the dust. We are taking every effort to wear dust masks while working underground; however, there are times when the masks become cumbersome and folks simply go without them. We will continue to remain vigilant on this issue, and take steps to insure the team is reducing their daily dust intake.

Image: Tim and Lynn working to pull data off the instruments.

Image: Evidence of salt mining. Notice the angularity on the exposed salt. This is evidence of the salt being flaked off this exposure. The cave floor was also littered with salt flakes. There were also fire hearths, wood and charcoal littering the ground. It seems they were using the fire to provide light to extract salt from this cave.

This cave was extensively used by prehistoric peoples, presumably the Atacameños or perhaps the Incas. We found numerous locations where fires were built, and we were also able to tentatively correlate this to a salt mining operation. The Incas were masters at exploiting commodities and developing trade routes throughout this area. With the major Incan administrative center of Cartarpe just a few miles away, I suspect the Incas were coordinating the removal of salt in pristine extraction locations. We also found ceramics in the back of this cave, and stomach remains of a ruminant, presumably one of the four llama species. It is quite likely there were multiple uses of this cave over the past several thousand years. The exact uses of this cave will probably continue to elude us, and the timeline for this usage will likely remain a mystery.

Image: A mandible, presumably from a Llama species, found in a rocky mud conglomerate mid-cave.

These shots were taken as we were driving through San Pedro en route to the field. Unfortunately, I think the woman who was herding these animals was not pleased with me taking photos.

Tomorrow we will have the day off. Everyone but Tim and I are going to Bolivia for the day. They will be visiting two lagunas on the Chile-Bolivia border that I visited back in November.

Tim will continue with the analysis on our day off. I will go to CONAF to give a presentation on our work in the Atacama.


Image: A small heard of llamas and cows being herded through town by a Quechuan woman and her dogs. She wasn't overly keen on me taking photos of her animals. I didn't realize this until I said "buenas dias." After saying it twice, she looked tersely at me and said "buenas." The use of "buenas" instead of "buenas dias" or "buenas noches" is common here in Chile.

Image: Another image of the herd of livestock and the Quechuan woman.

More water in Atacama Desert Caves!

09-10 June 2009

Image: Canyon Cari.

Today, we worked in the second most picturesque canyon in this region – Cañon Carí. As with the rest of this region, Cañon Carí is completely otherworldly. I as well as others on this expedition have said numerous times, this are would be the perfect set for a SciFi movie.

Image: Explorers Club Flag photo. We'll probably take a few during this expeidtion; however, the backdrop was excellent. We were beneath an arch in Canyon Cari. Credit: Dan Ruby.

Our cave for the next two days is perhaps the most mazy and long of all our study sites. It’s rather tight in places and requires skills becoming of a Yogi.

Image: "Dan the lollipop man" and the rest of the mapping temam. The lollipop is a protractor wheel used for collecting volumetric data of our study caves.

The sensor team spent considerably more time in this cave than we probably needed to. We could not relocate one of the instruments that was deployed in one of the last days of our expedition last year. We scoured the cave and could not relocate this instrument. It was quite unfortunate to lose another instrument; however, we are doing quite well thus far in relocating our sensors. We’ve been unable to relocate only two thus far.

Losing instruments during a project is not foreign to me. Despite thorough documentation of the location and multiple pictures taken at each site, these things still happen. Kyle Voyles and I have lost more than one sensor working up on Grand Canyon north rim. It’s always frustrating when it happens, but it happens.

Image: Christina inspecting some small salt pillars in Luna y Media cave. Credit: Dan Ruby.

We did make another cool discovery. We found water in another Atacama cave. Luna y Media contains pockets of mud in a passage which is at a much higher elevation than the lower entrance, and the floor is solid halite. We are still curious as to the mechanism(s) resulting in the deposition of water in this cave.

Image: "Barro" or mud in yet another Atacama Desert cave. It is getting interesting in northern Chile!

We were able to pull data off of all our instruments on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the sensor team had a contingency operations day, where we caught up on our data analysis.

All is continuing to proceed smoothly on this project. We are still on schedule and we are making good progress.

Image: A rare view of the property with water. There's an ancient irrigation system in San Pedro that brings water for crops and plants to the interior of the village. I've noted the irrigation system across our property, but this is the first time I've seen the land irrigated. All we have to do is move a few stones and you have water in the desert!

Them bones, them bones!

08 June 2009

Image: Bones from Cuevita de Huesos. Credit: Gerhard Huedepohl 2008.

We are revisiting all the caves we worked last year. As mentioned in the first blog of this expedition, the purpose is to complete the mapping effort, service the sensors, and conduct near real-time analysis of the temperature and barometric pressure data collected over the past year. So, we return to Cuevita de Huesos once again. This incredibly small, yet incredibly cool cuevita contains one of the discoveries that attracted so much attention by the media last year.

Image: Mapping team posing for a photo.

It contains thousands of bones and bone fragments within and along the cave walls. These bones likely belong to one of the four new world camelids that call the altiplano home – vacuñas, guanacos, llamas, and alpacas. However, the jury is still out as to how these bones were deposited. Did these animals die in a flood, and their remains washed into a hole that ultimately filled by soil and then eroded out when the cave formed exposing the bones? Were these bones deposited much earlier, perhaps tens to hundreds of thousands of years, and then the cave formed resulting in their exposure? Or, perhaps a more interesting possibility, is does this area represent a midden where ancient people (e.g., the Atacameños) and these bones were then exposed by alluvial activities? To read about this, go to LiveScience.com, Incredible Discoveries Made in Remote Caves (31 July 2008).

Image: Dan and I entering data. Certainly, the most glamorous part of expedition! Image: Tim Titus.

Once again, our expedition team garnered much success today. The sensor team pulled data from the sensors and redeployed the instruments, while the mapping team mapped the entire feature.

Image: Group dinner after a day in the field. Credit: Dan Ruby.

Mapping and Maintaining Sensors at Cuevita de Cartarpe

07 June 2009

Image: A southerly view of Cañon Cartarpe.

We had another productive day in the Atacama. This non-cave feature is likely the only one that will require rope during this expedition. As a safety precaution, both trucks contain rescue gear which includes rope. So, while this is the only time rope will be required as part of this work, I am also hopeful that it will be the last time we need to use rope. We had to rig a 25 ft upclimb to reach the upper level of this cave. Accessing this upper level requires nuisance climb; we had to use our ascenders to get to the upper level.

Image: Christina, our safety chief and rope master, rigging the cave for our ascent. While I am look like I'm contributing, I'm really just in the way.

I got to try out my new Petzl Verso on the rap down. I totally dig it! Thanks again to Charly and Petzl for their support!

Image: The doc observing the operations undertaken in the pit. Fortunately, his expertise were not required again today. Image: Dan Ruby.

We had three instruments in this cave, and we’ve learned uploading data and re-launching our instruments takes very little time. Our mapping team will be spending far more time in the field than the sensor maintenance team. However, the sensor team will still have a lot of work to do by way of analysis and determining whether we need to return to some of our caves to deploy additional instruments.

Image: Entrance of Cuevita de Cartarpe. Credit: Tim Titus.

Cañon Cartarpe is perhaps one of the more picturesque areas where we will be working during this expedition. The Rio San Pedro cuts this canyon, and thus it is the only area in this part of the Atacama that contains vegetation. The town of San Pedro exists because of this river and has been an important oasis to both humans and animals for thousands of years.

Image: Likely the only time I will be on rope during this expedition. It was a short upclimb and as short of a rappel. However, any day on rope is a good day, indeed! Credit: Dan Ruby.

Return to Salt Landscape Cave

Day 2 of Field Operations (06 June 2009)

Image: Some of the salt speleothemic formations within Salt Landscape Cave.

The mapping team remained in town today. They had two days slotted for mapping Quitor, and were able to map this cave in one day. They had some issues with the instrumentation, and wanted to resolve these issues. There were some magnetic anomalies in Quitor that were causing some of the instruments to produce erroneous results; so, Dan and the others wanted to determine why this was happening. They ultimately found a work around to this.

Image: Cool salt stalactite within lower entrance, Salt Landscape Cave.

Lynn, Tim and I went to Salt Landscape Cave to pull sensors. It was great to return to the field Cordillera de los Andes. The vistas were just as are otherworldly as ever. Lazcar (the only active volcano in the region) was slowly piping smoke into the sky, and the clouds hugged the mountains and volcanoes of the Altiplano throughout the day.

Salt Landscape Cave was rather difficult to manage last year. We spent three days at this cave searching for the other two of the entrances. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. As a result, we were able to deploy sensors in two of four entrances. Also, we were unable to get through the entire cave given that it was incredibly tight in several areas. So, we decided to pull sensors and use these additional sensors to supplement coverage at our study caves.

Image: Tim collecting coordinate data for one of our surface sensors outside Salt Landscape Cave.

We returned to San Pedro early today, and began entering data. This project will involve both field work and a major data entry component. We’ll be spending most nights entering and analyzing data. Although this is only day to of field operations, we are proving to be far more productive than we were last year, and we are right on schedule.

Image: Lynn with the Salt Landscape in the background. It was another beautiful day in the driest desert in the world!

Field Operations, Day 1: Return to Quitor

Today, we had our first day in the field. Despite a steep learning curb on low tech anti-theft devices on one of our trucks, we had an incredibly productive day.

Image: Tim and I preparing to depart for the day. Standing within the sinkhole entrance of Quitor. Credit: Dan Ruby.

The sensor and data management team successfully pulled data off all remaining sensors in Caverna de Quitor. Unfortunately, one of our sensors was stolen. The sensor location was a concern to me last year, but we felt it was the best location at the time.

On the side, we also learned our data loggers are incredibly power efficient. We’ve been collecting data for the past 11 months and still had 95% battery power remaining on several of our data loggers.

Image: Christina and Denise taking a break from mapping Quitor. Credit: Dan Ruby.

The cartography team was also successful today. For the most part, they completely mapped Quitor; however, they do have some concerns regarding magnetic anomalies within the cave that may be affecting their measurements. Tomorrow, they will be conducting some tests at the house to see if they can resolve these problems. They may ultimately learn they have to return to Quitor for a half day to mop up some of these problems. However, this shouldn’t be a problem. Although this is our first day of field operations, we are maintaining our schedule.

Image: Dan, Lynn, Christina and a stray dog at the entrance of Quitor. Dogs are pervasive in San Pedro. At any given time, there are likely more dogs than tourists in this town!

2009 Atacama Desert Expedition, Earth-Mars Cave Detection Project

We arrived in country on 01 June. The advance party consisted of Tim, Dan, Christina and myself. Our objective was to arrive Calama, go to the hardware and grocery story, and set up the house prior to the arrival of the rest of the team. We effortlessly picked up the vehicles from the Calama Airport and we went directly to Hotel Agua Desierto. We were all completely spent after well over two days on planes and in airports.

We arrived to San Pedro de Atacama on 02 June, and began to set up the house. Last year it took us well over a week to set up the house. This year, we did it in less than a day. Dialing in the house goes much quicker when you know where all the stores are and exactly what you need.

Our objectives for this year’s expedition are to: (a) complete the mapping effort for all our study caves; (b) upload data from our instruments, replace batteries and relaunch all instruments currently deployed within our study caves; and, (c) conduct near real-time analysis of cave and non-cave feature data. This third objective is imperative to ensure proper deployment of sensors for the second year of data collection. Because the temperature and barometric pressure data are only extracted once per year, the analysis of these data while still in the field allows for modifications of the placement of sensors and the number of sensors used prior to departing the Atacama Desert. Without the capability of near real time analysis, modifications emplacement strategy on a per cave basis would not occur until year 3, thus potentially diminishing the value of data collected.

This expedition is part of a three-year project to develop techniques to systematically predict and detect caves on the Earth and Mars. For this project, we will be working at two premiere Mars-analogue sites, the Atacama Desert, northern Chile and Mojave Desert, southern California. This project is funded through the NASA-Exobiology Program.

If life ever evolved on Mars, evidence will be located in subsurface cavities protected from the hostile surface environment. Overall project objectives are to (1) better characterize thermal behavior of both terrestrial and Martian caves; (2) identify optimal detection times (i.e., appropriate day and season) for detection via a thermal infrared remote sensing platform; (3) ultimately differentiate caves from non-cave features (e.g., alcoves, sheltered dry falls or small tunnel features that may be confused with cave entrances); and, (4) potentially infer cave volume from the thermal signal strength of cave entrances. For the Atacama Desert Expedition, our mission objectives are to (a) deploy temperature and barometric pressure sensors at caves and non-cave features, (b) estimate cave volume using newly developed techniques, and (c) map caves and non-cave features using high resolution and high detail maps.

The project has once again been honored with the distinction as an Explorer's Club Flag Expedition.

So, now to meet the 2009 Atacama Desert expedition team…

Team 1: Sensor and Data Management

Jut Wynne, Expedition Lead -- I am currently working on his PhD in biology from Northern Arizona University. For my dissertation research, I am developing models to characterize cave communities in Arizona and New Mexico. I serve the 2009 Atacama Desert Expedition as the project’s expedition leader and overall project manager.

Tim Titus, No. 2, Deputy Expedition Lead -- Tim is a astrophysicist with the USGS-Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Arizona. He is a co-investigator on this project and was a co-investigator during Phase 1. This will be Tim's second tour in the Atacama on this project. He has also served as number 2 during the Mojave Desert Expedition.

Lynn Hicks, Senior Medical Officer -- Lynn is a medical doctor and received his M.D. at Auburn University. He is also a member of the Explorers Club. He will be serving the expedition's field medical doctor. Lynn is also a veteran of this project. He served as our medical doctor last year. Fortunately, he only had to "doctor" a smashed finger last year. We are hopeful his expertise will not be required again this year.

Team 2: Cartography Team

Dan Ruby, Number 3, Cartography Lead -- Dan Ruby is the associate director of Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center in Reno, Nevada, a member of the Explorers Club and a member of the Northern Nevada Grotto of the National Speleological Society. Dan has served as a cartographer on the 2008 Atacama Expedition, a field technician n the 2008 Rapa Nui Cave Biodiversity Expedition and the lead cartographer on the 2008 Mojave Desert Expedition. He obtained his B.F.A. (Bachelors in Fine Arts, emphasis in Digital Media) from the University of Nevada-Reno. Dan has an interest in space exploration stretching back to his first space LEGO set, a lunar lander, in 1980 at the age of three. He still continues to launch model rockets (albeit instrumented sound-barrier-breaking ones) and plays with LEGO sets (to build robot rovers), alongside his role presenting astronomy talks to the public and 15,000 K-12 students per year. Dan’s current pursuits include sustainable energy projects and spending many hours underground in high altitude regions with extremely dry climates. Dan has been pivotal in developing techniques for estimating cave volume and has been developing a paper on these techniques. We anticipate this paper to be published within the next six months.

Christina Colpitts, Number 4, Safety Chief, Cartographic Technician -- Christina is a commercial pilot and wilderness guide. She obtained her B.S. in Aeronautical Science with a minor in Environmental Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Christina is currently based in San Diego and flies tour groups to central Baja and guides eco tourism/ adventure trips. She is involved in adventure and scientific caving for over 10 years in addition to conducting field-based environmental research projects located in the western United States. Some of her interests include long distance hiking, ice hockey, archaeology, machining, alternative fuels, and plant biology. She has worked on two cave expeditions south of the equator. She served as safety chief/ medical specialist during both the 2008 Atacama Expedition and the 2008 Rapa Nui Cave Biodiversity Expedition. She will be serving this expedition as the safety chief/ medical specialist. She will be responsible for evaluating project risks and adapting appropriate strategies to mitigate risks in the field.

Denise Hill, EMT, Cartographic Technician -- Denise is a veteran to cave mapping; in 2008, she served as Safety Chief and cartographic technician for the 2008 Mojave Desert Expedition. She is an EMT and will round out our three person medical team.