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John Buchanan: Shedding Light on Terra Incognita
| Article
# : |
13880 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1995 |
2,786 Words |
| Author
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John Soennichsen
John Soennichsen is a freelance writer residing in Cheney,
Washington. His last article for The World & I, "Disease
Detective," was published in December 1996. |
Half walking, half swimming down a flooded passageway deep below the Central American jungle, eight cave explorers reach a limestone shelf that juts out over the underground stream, allowing them to clamber out of the water. As they stop to map their location and rest a few moments, one man's headlamp reveals a small, spherical object protruding from a slight depression in the cavern floor. Though covered in flowstone from the dripping stalactites above, its shape looks disturbingly familiar. Stepping carefully over to the spot, he crouches down and aims his beam directly at the object. The connection is made, the identification confirmed. He is gazing down at a human skull. John Buchanan, as the lead surveyor of this group, is the first to climb onto the ledge on which the skull is found.
A career shaped by mentors
Back in Pennsylvania when he was a boy, John Buchanan never dreamed he would one day be cutting trails through the jungle, crawling through narrow limestone passages, or entering ancient Mayan burial chambers. Nor did he ever imagine he would become one of the country's foremost experts on the geology of caves and the world's limestone karst regions. When Buchanan was 13, spelunking was merely fun. But that was also the year his eighth-grade earth science teacher became a major influence on him, determining the direction of his life.
"Ellis Underkoffler was a bona fide geologist and an educator," Buchanan recalls. "He loaned me books from his personal library, took me along on field trips to gather fossils. He really provided my first significant exposure to earth science. When I was in ninth grade, it was Ellis who loaned me the
... (1996 of 17737 Characters)
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