Abstract
This research provides bihourly temperature and relative humidity data from ten measuring locations in eight caves from one of the largest contiguous arid karst areas in the world, the Nullarbor Plain in south Australia. The current data span the period from November 2019 to March 2021, and represent the first continuous published monitoring of the subterranean features in this area. The data were recorded using ten TGP-4500 Tinytag Plus 2 self-contained temperature (resolution ±0.01 °C or better with a reading range from −25 °C to +85 °C) and relative humidity (resolution ±3.0% or better with a reading range from 0% to 100%) data loggers and are available in the form of a spreadsheet. The text also describes reported (but only occasional) visits to the caves, so that the data for those particular days and/or hours can be treated as anthropogenically influenced. The data have great potential to provide insight into underground karst processes, air mass movements, hydrogeology, speleothems and (palaeo)climate, current climatic changes, and biology.
Highlights
This research provides bihourly temperature and relative humidity data from ten measuring locations in eight caves from one of the largest contiguous arid karst areas in the world, the Nullarbor Plain in south Australia
The monitoring of temperature and relative humidity of caves is a vital factor for understanding subterranean climatic systems and their relation to exterior climate
Cave temperature is generally connected with the external climate [1] and can reflect the mean annual temperature of the surface [2]
Summary
The monitoring of temperature and relative humidity of caves is a vital factor for understanding subterranean climatic systems and their relation to exterior climate. Temperature and relative humidity data are an integral part of understanding the development of speleothems [5], climate-sensitive cave fauna [4], tourist impact [4], and radon emanations [6]. The Nullarbor Plain is a vast, approximately 200,000 km karst area in south Australia (Figure 1) with a variety of caves, generally divided into four cave types: deep caves (generally extending more than 30 m and up to 150 m below the surface, some reaching the water table level), shallow caves (generally extending less than 30 m below the surface), blowholes (vertical dissolutional shafts marked by in-and-out draughts of air), and Thylacine type caves Data 2022, 7, 30 blowholes (vertical dissolutional shafts marked by in-and-out draughts of air), and Thylacine type caves (characteristic for its larger collapsed room and blowhole or collapsetype roof window for its entrance) [9–12].
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