Around 25 years ago, three researchers independently investigated how to automatically count water dripping from a cave roof onto a stalagmite. Dominique Gentry worked in Belgium, I worked in the UK, and Janece McDonald in Australia. There were proximity sensors, infrared beam splitters, pressure transducer, ....
Janece's experimental set up was left in Wollondilly Cave where it has been part of the cave tour for over two decades. Here it is, with one site restarted with Stalagmate (c) drip counter (there's a pressure transducer inside the box, recording when it senses the drip impact). Let's see how the hydrology has changed over 20 years later.
#research #hydrology #cavescience #groundwater #academia #Wombeyan #UNSW #caves

