Survey Workshop – 2003
Field Report – September 20

On the 20th of September at 11:00 AM, the second in a series of ongoing NACD workshops for underwater cave surveying, commenced at the Peacock III area. In attendance were:

Topics covered were:

• Maps, grades, and accuracy's
• Motivations for surveying underwater caves
• References and guides for surveying underwater caves
• Tools need and how to carry it all
• Actual survey circuits, both with tape and counting knots
• Error introduction / and how to avoid basic pitfalls
• Data collection and input
• Line plots / correcting data
• Drawing outer limits and features
• Drawing programs/ file formats
• Copyrights and publishing maps

The workshop ended at 2:00 PM, and everyone got a chance to try his or her hand at an actual survey of a guideline. It was very interesting for everyone to see the different outcomes, and errors introduced through methods such as counting knots. Afterwards, two teams entered the water. Kathleen Siede, and Alan Riggs took the Pothole tunnel, and Edd Sorenson, Trevor Graybeal, and Buck Lawhorn surveyed up the Peanut  Line. Both surveys were corrected, plotted, and compared to known maps of the system. The team's results were good, and kudos to Edd, Trevor, and Buck for surveying nearly 1000 feet!

The entire workshop was very informative, upbeat and positive. Everyone came away with a heightened knowledge in regards to surveying underwater caves, which was the entire goal of the workshop.

NEXT SURVEY WORKSHOP:              March 6, 2004

James Hurley
Chairperson – NACD Research, Exploration & Survey