Crystal-Sequoia lighted by solar and LED

[cavedoc]

From the Fresno Bee 5-8-2010

Popular Crystal Cave -- home to eyeless bugs and spiders with monster jaws -- will be illuminated by the power of the sun starting Saturday.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/05/07/192 ... s-sun.html

[glassgnom]

Ruby Falls had solar panels installed last summer, we are now generating about 24% of our yearly electric consumption with these. They also swiched to led and neon-the cave is noticably cooler in the warm summer months when it is packed with tourists.

[tncaver]

Ruby Falls had solar panels installed last summer, we are now generating about 24% of our yearly electric consumption with these. They also swiched to led and neon-the cave is noticably cooler in the warm summer months when it is packed with tourists.

That is what I call "green caving".

[JR-Orion]

From the article:

"An example of evolutionary change in a dark environment: One spider has mammoth jaws that fold out like the monster's jaws in the movie "Alien" -- giving it a better chance of snagging meals without seeing them."

Anyone know the name of that spider? I need to see a pic of that thing.

And that's great news on the solar power and LED lights.

[John Lovaas]

Hi Jasen-

There's a bunch of pictures of the SEKI cave critters here-

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0 ... lery1.html

[Dawn Ryan]

It was fun and rewarding helping to remove some of the old electric cable and concrete from the cave.
Dawn Ryan

[Dawn Ryan]

[quote="JR-Orion"]From the article:

"An example of evolutionary change in a dark environment: One spider has mammoth jaws that fold out like the monster's jaws in the movie "Alien" -- giving it a better chance of snagging meals without seeing them."

Anyone know the name of that spider? I need to see a pic of that thing.

And that's great news on the solar power and LED lights.

Jason,
I've been able to help with some of the invertebrate inventories in Crystal Cave. One of my favorite spiders is the hypochilius petrunkevich. I took this picture a couple of years ago.


Dawn Ryan

[JR-Orion]

Thanks for those pics. Although I have a bit of a creepy crawly feeling after looking at all of them.