Summary

11 Complesso Valle del Nosè Editorial staff & Francesco Grazioli Photo gallery dedicated to Italy’s longest cave system. During the winter 2012 two Lombardy caving teams, joined the Tacchi cave to the Stoppani cave on the Pian del Tivano, a valley of “Triangolo Lariano” located above the Como Lake. The new system is now 58 km long, while other caves in the neighbourhood still remain to be explored…

18 Abisso Bueneo Fonteno the timeless vertigo Massimo Pozzo, Fabio Gatti The “Sebino Project” put together several cavers from the Lombardy region. Since five years this team explores the Bueno Fonteno cave, a big underground system located on the mounts of Sebino, a karst area close to the west side of the Iseo Lake (Department of Bergamo city). At the present time this area has 115 explored caves among which the Bueno Fonteno is the longest with 21 km of development and 560 m of depth. From the morphological point of view this cave is formed by various branches, with dry zones and active streams, passages, meanders and pits. The Bueno Fonteno cave is hosted in a syncline with different stratigraphic series (limestone and dolostone layers), furthermore a dye test proved that the waters of Bueno Fonteno flow to the La Ripiegata spring, located nearby the Iseo Lake.

28 Zubbia Gapparrone Angelo Iemmolo, Marco Vattano This paper aims to describe the exploration phases, the main features, and the whole setting of the Zubbia Gapparrone cave (Si/AG 2033). This cave, formed in the Messinian gypsum units and located in the Agrigento municipal area, reaches about 600 m of length and 60 m of depth. It is composed of a sequence of three small shafts and a gallery. From the hydrological point of view the cave represents a sink cave without explorable connection with its sink point, which becomes active only during prolonged rainfall. Into the cave different landforms due to free water flows and paragenetic phases have been surveyed. The Zubbia Gapparrone cave is very rich in gypsum and carbonate speleothems.

34 When the caves tell our beginnings Luana Aimar, Nicola Castelnuovo The caves are a perfect environment for the conservation of the anthropic remains and they help to cover the gap on the fossil documentation. The several fossil remains discovered inside the caves are very important for the reconstruction of the human evolution. Every year new discoveries derived from many caves in Italy and around the world, reopen never ending discussions and create further fascinating problems. Here a general overview on this topic.

42 A fifty years old adventurous descent inside the San Canziano cave Rodolfo Pozzi Fifty years ago, a group of young cavers from Italy, decide to visit the famous Yugoslavian caves, where the Timavo underground river flows. During the descent the group is taken by surprise by a flood of the river. Fortunately the cavers found an high shelter along the cave walls. After waiting days the group is rescued by the Yugoslavian cavers. While outside the TV journalists build up a national case…

46 The karst of Mount Saint Paul Palawan Philippines Leonardo Piccini, Antonio De Vivo editors The St. Paul karst is located in eastern Palawan, ~50 km NE of Puerto Princesa, and it is famous because it hosts the Puerto Princesa Underground River, a candidate for the New Seven Wonders of nature. The karst covers an area of ~35 km 2

and is made up of a massive to roughly stratified, Oligo-Miocene limestone. The Underground River, more than 32 km long, is composed of an active level and huge fossil branches; it represents a unique karst system, due both to the variety of its ecosystem and to its peculiar hydrodynamic features. The cave, was explored by Australian teams in the early 1980s, and then explored by the Italian Speleological Society and La Venta team. In 2007, 2008 and 2011, La Venta organized three expeditions to this karst area in collaboration with the authorities of the Park and the city of Puerto Princesa. The project aimed at completing the exploration of the Underground River, exploring some dolines on the NW side of the mountain, surveying the S part of the area and reaching the top of Mount St. Paul (1028 m a.s.l.). In the course of the three expeditions, several kilometres of new active and fossil passages were explored and mapped in Underground River; two vertical caves were explored in the NE area, one of which is now the deepest one in the Philippines, and four huge relict through-caves were mapped in the SE portion. Some new entrances discovered on the summit area of St. Paul will be the objectives for future expeditions.

60 Recent developments in surface and subsurface geomorphology: an introduction Jo De Waele, Lukas Plan, Philippe Audra Karst geomorphology as a Science has developed rapidly in the past 20 years. Many researchers from all over the world have studied special karst environments in remote parts of the globe, finding and describing new surface and underground morphologies. Also analytical techniques have allowed for a more precise dating of sediments and speleothems, while more powerful computers are now able to elaborate much larger amounts of data, handling more and more complex models. The most recent advancements in karst geomorphology are here outlined and, most of all, an extensive literature list gives a good overview of the most important and recent publications in this field.

SPELEOLOGIA Semestrale della Società Speleologica Italiana Redazione: Centro Italiano di Documentazione Speleologica “F. Anelli” via Zamboni 67 - 40126 Bologna Tel. e fax 051250049 speleologia@socissi.it

OPERA IPOGEA Journal of Speleology in Artificial Cavities Semestrale della Società Speleologica Italiana www.operaipogea.it Redazione rivista c/o Sossio Del Prete Via Ferrarecce, 7 - 81100 Caserta Redazione web c/o Carla Galeazzi carla.galeazzi3@alice.it

Quaderni Didattici S.S.I. 1) Geomorfologia e speleogenesi carsica 2) Tecnica speleologica 3) Il rilievo delle grotte 4) Speleologia in cavità artificiali 5) L’impatto dell’uomo sull’ambiente di grotta 6) Geologia per speleologi 7) I depositi chimici delle grotte 8) Il clima delle grotte 9) L’utilizzo del GPS in speleologia 10) Vita nelle grotte 11) Storia della speleologia 12) Gli acquiferi carsici 13) Fotografare il buio 14) SOS in grotta

MEMORIE DELL’ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI SPELEOLOGIA Rivista aperiodica Redazione: Paolo Forti, Università di Bologna, Dip. di Scienze Geologico-Ambientali, via Zamboni 67 - 40126 Bologna Tel. 0512094547 paolo.forti@unibo.it

BULLETIN BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE SPÉLÉOLOGIQUE Union Internationale de Spéléologie Redazione per l’Italia: Centro Italiano di Documentazione Speleologica “F. Anelli” via Zamboni 67 - 40126 Bologna Tel. e fax 051250049 biblioteca.speleologia@unibo.it

COLLANA NARRATIVA E POESIA

Nuovi Autori 1) La vetta e il fondo 2) Altre piccole profondità 3) Ipoesie 4) Sulle corde