Locating flowing conduits in Karst using passive seismic deployments

<p>Karst is an important landscape in many locations incorporating many subterranean waterflow passages in the form of caves, conduits, and fractures. Although challenging, some karst structures can be imaged by active geophysical techniques however they generally cannot facilitate differentiation between flowing and non-flowing waterways. In this study, we aim to locate flowing conduits by passively capturing flow-induced seismic signals.</p><p>To gain a broad understanding of seismic source versus path effect in these complex structures and to help us design bespoke field experiments, we commence our study by undertaking 3D numerical simulation (using SPECFEM3D) for different cases of shallow and deep conduits. These choices are informed by known conduit geometries in Ireland (they have been dived). Spectral resonance, synthetic heat maps, and amplitude-based locations of synthetic data reveal interesting information regarding the conduit response.</p><p>Based on the results of these simulations, we designed the layout of a passive field experiment on karst on Pollnagran cave in County Roscommon, Ireland using 1Hz seismometers and 5 Hz Geophones. The karst deployment is also complemented by smaller experiments on surface rivers in order to help better understand observed signals. We also undertake an active hammer seismic survey at the site in order the build a model for future site-specific numerical simulations.</p><p>Consistent with numerical experiments, clear discrete frequencies associated with water flow are observed in the field data. A complex picture is emerging where the largest dived caves are not necessarily the flow structures with the largest seismic amplitudes.</p>

Peer Mediation Pilot Initiative in Castlerea Prison: A Process Evaluation

This paper details the development and outcomes of a pilot peer mediation initiative in Castlerea prison in County Roscommon, Ireland, in 2016-2017. A process evaluation was undertaken using desk research and qualitative discussions with peer mediators and partners to the process. This pilot included a 10-week training programme for peer mediators, the majority of whom were male Traveller prisoners in Castlerea prison. The partners to the programme are the Traveller Mediation Service (TMS), the Travellers in Prison Initiative (TPI) (see Appendix 1 for details of these services), The Irish Prison Service (IPS) and the Education and Training Board (ETB), called the ‗school‘ in Castlerea prison. The paper describes the impacts and elements of good practice of the pilot programme, as well as proposed next steps in the programme‘s implementation. It concludes that the peer mediation programme has potential for implementation across Irish prisons.

Surgeon Major Thomas Heazle Parke (1857–1893): Irish doctor, soldier and explorer

Surgeon Major Thomas Heazle Parke (1857–1893) was a doctor from Drumsna, County Roscommon, who after completing his education at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland joined the British army as a medical officer. After several years of serving in Ireland and Egypt, he volunteered to be medical officer of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1887–1889. This was to become Henry Morton Stanley’s largest, longest and most controversial African expedition. The epic journey saw Stanley, his eight European officers and 800 African porters take almost 3 years to cross the African continent from West to East via the Congo River, Southern Sudan and Uganda. During this time, Parke had to single-handedly deal with the myriad diseases and injuries that beset the expedition’s members. Barely 200 of the Zanzibari, Sudanese and Somali porters survived, and two British officers also perished. In completing the expedition, Parke became the first Irishman to cross Africa, and he had also become the first European to lay eyes on the ‘Mountains of the Moon’ or ‘Ruwenzori’. He returned home to great acclaim, and was bestowed copious honours and fellowships. His account of the expedition, My Experiences in Equatorial Africa, was a bestseller. However, his own health never recovered from the hardships of his time in Africa, and he died suddenly in 1893. His statue stands outside the Natural History Museum in Dublin.