The speleo-photo editions

Lechuguilla Cave
Discoveries in a Hidden Splendor

Max Wisshak • Hazel A. Barton
(Editors)

Lechuguilla Cave (New Mexico, USA) is one of the most beautiful caves on Earth. Since its discovery in 1986, more than 240 kilometers of cave has been explored – with no end in sight. Owing to its geologic setting and unusual process of formation, the cave contains a remarkable diversity of rare minerals and formations, which have helped change our understanding of how caves form and the microbial life they can contain.

In this book, the most active explorers of the cave show the features that made it famous and reveal new discoveries in terms of beauty, scale, and science. Through their writing and photography, they take the reader on their journey of preparing for, and exploring, this remarkable cave. They describe how to successfully live and work in the underground, and highlight the challenges that must be overcome to discover and map new passages. An explanation of how the stunning imagery is captured takes the reader along in this visual journey of Discoveries in a Hidden Splendor. Finally, the extraordinary lengths undertaken to conserve Lechuguilla are illustrated, and how such efforts go hand-in-hand with exploration and photography to reveal the intriguing nature of this wonder of the underground.

New Zealand Karst
A voyage across limestone landscapes
into the subterranean realm of caves

Max Wisshak • Stefanie Wisshak

New Zealand Karst is a high-quality coffee-table book I put together in close collaboration with my dear wife Stefanie. The book is aimed equally at a readership interested in natural science and at friends of skilful nature photography. Accompanied by a foreword contributed by renowned karst researcher Paul W. Williams, the lavishly designed 256-page work guides you through the diverse aspects of New Zealand karst landscapes and caves.

The blurb to this voyage:

Karstified landscapes are among the most bizarre on our planet – both above and below ground. This book takes you on a visual journey across sublime karst scenery and into the subterranean wilderness of New Zealand caves. Accompanied by popular scientific texts, stunning images lead you from the sculptured limestone pavements of the alpine marble karst to the grassland and jungle karst of the foothills, onwards into the twilight zone and deeper into the caves. It explores the diversity of peculiar features and creatures of the underground, ventures back into the light of cave ruins, and concludes with karst-related Māori rock art.

Learn about the life cycle of the endemic glowworm and the critically endangered Nelson cave spider. Explore the majesty of cave minerals forming speleothems of all types. Discover the many roles water plays in shaping karst and understand the vulnerability of these geotopes and biotopes. New Zealand Karst reveals how you can appreciate karst as a phenomenon where geological, biological, and archaeological beauty all come together in harmony.

New Zealand Karst
– standard edition –

256 pages
232 colour photos and 3 graphs
Hardcover 31.5 x 22.5 cm
5-colour offset print on coated matt paper
Carbon-neutral production
1st edition 2020
edition speleo-photo
ISBN 978-3-9821714-0-1

New Zealand Karst
– limited special edition –

Noble slipcase
Limited to 200 copies
256 pages
232 colour photos and 3 graphs
Hardcover in slipcase 32 x 23 cm
5-colour offset print on coated matt paper
Carbon-neutral production
1st edition 2020
edition speleo-photo
ISBN 978-3-9821714-1-8

If you'd like to order also other books published by or available throught the speleo-photo editions, please use the 'continue shopping' button or visit the speleo-photo editions webshop at www.lechuguilla-cave.info.

The indicated prices are final prices excluding shipping. According to § 19 UStG (German VAT Act) I do not charge sales tax and therefore I do not show it (small business status). In the case of deliveries to countries outside the European Union, additional costs may be incurred in individual cases and must be borne by the purchaser (e.g. import duty). For shipping costs and delivery times, please refer to the shipping cost table. Please also note the terms and conditions and the cancellation policy.