New cave book - from Russia with love :)

[amascuba]

Great pictures!

Nice photos.

Is the gypsum relatively solid compared to limestone or does it crumble easily with percolation or to touch?

Gypsum is pretty fragile rock. Easily scratched with the finger nail and broken. It's generally formed from shallow seas. I'm not completely certain, but I imagine that once the rock is saturated it would crumble fairly easily with percolation.

 

[SnowKitty]

You are right, gypsum dissolves very quickly, and falls down like a snow with percolation. You can see these 'snowflakes' on some photos. In distant parts of the cave we had to get shots "non stop" - if we stayed in place for some time, visibility would fell down. But there are not only simple gypsum but dolomites, ahydrites - they are not so fragile.

 

[SnowKitty]

on the front you see small stones fall down:

and here percolation caused by photographer:

 

[uberdude]

Hello All,
After transferring my money with Moneybooker.com (yes it's secure and safe) I have received my book from the Orda guy's. I didn't know what to expect but my first impressions are WOW. Hard cover and full of fantastic pictures. I will sit down and go through it thoroughly an report back. Great job Snow Kitty and team and thank you!!
Damian

 

[vioch]

Some cool footage of this cave on Youtube
[video=youtube;84926Awa-_g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=84926Awa-_g[/video]