On a stormy July morning, members of the Slovenian CARDIKARST team, Franci, Vanessa and Matej, with help from Tea Selaković (Spelelological Society Velebit, Zagreb, Croatia) entered Postojnska jama, Črna jama and Pivka jama (Slovenia). The aim of the trip was to install new continuous monitoring instruments for water conductivity, temperature and depth, take spot measurements of cave air and water CO2 concentrations, measure basic water geochemical parameters and take water samples for chemical analyses. Despite the trip being postponed for an hour to allow a heavy storm to pass, the team identified the best locations for measurements and successfully carried out the work. Cave water temperatures at the various sites ranged from 10°C to 20°C and large differences were observed in CO2 concentrations between air and water at singular sites, diverging by up to 2000 ppm. Now we cross our fingers that the caves, with climatic conditions that are generally challenging for electrical equipment, cooperate and we manage to collect long and interesting datasets.
Text: Vanessa Johnston
Photos: Franci Gabrovšek
