Bowling Green, Ky. - Dr. David Lagrou, a research geologist and karst expert from Belgium's Flemish Institute for Technological Research, visited Western Kentucky University and several southeastern United States caves last week for ongoing development of cooperative research efforts with WKU scientists and students.

Dr. Lagrou was joined on the trip by his wife, Nichi, and David Deroest from Grenoble, France, both accomplished cave explorers who have joined Dr. Lagrou on cave expeditions around the world including Spain, Switzerland, Brazil and Vietnam.

The Belgian team joined WKU cavers on cave mapping and science projects in the Mammoth Cave System and Cave Spring Caverns near Smiths Grove, as well as visiting deep pit caves in Tennessee and Georgia. These trips were led by geoscience graduate students Ben Tobin and Brian Sakofsky, who had an opportunity to interact and discuss karst research with the European scientists.

One trip that impressed the Belgians was descending Fantastic Pit within Georgia's Ellison's Cave, which at 586 feet deep (31 feet deeper than the Washington Monument is tall) is the deepest known pit in the continental United States.

"Dr. Lagrou and his colleagues are well known internationally for their karst-related work in the far northern provinces of Vietnam," said Dr. Chris Groves, director of the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute within WKU's Applied Research and Technology Program, who helped organize the visit and accompanied the Belgians on several of the week's trips.

"While their emphasis has been on understanding karst water resources, they have also discovered and are still exploring Cong Nuoc Cave, which at nearly 2,000 feet deep is Vietnam's deepest cave."

The Belgian group has invited WKU cavers to accompany the next expedition to Cong Nuoc Cave later this year.

Dr. Groves will meet with the Belgians next month at the annual meeting of UNESCO's International Geological Correlation Program in Paris, France.

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For information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974.