Aragonite Cave Ochtina:

In Slovakia we went to the “Aragonites Caves Ochtina” , this caves have 300 meters of long and the temperature is around 7 Cº.

The aragonite is formed from thermal water or geysers, filtered water that have come into contact with hot rocks located at great depth and have re-emerged to the surface. This water dissolves minerals from rocks in its wake, including calcium. As the thermal waters evaporate, the calcium-containing precipitates and, when in contact with air, combines with oxygen and carbon dioxide to form the crystals of aragonite.

We can found aragonita in the form of stalactites and in the shell of nearly all mollusks and coral skeleton.

This is an example of the aragonite cave :

By: Silvia Conde and Irene Martinez

CO2 in Oceans

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increases, and much of this gas is absorbed by the oceans, the sea water reacts with carbon dioxide forming carbonic acid, which causes an increase in the acidity of the seas.

The more acidic areas are mainly the polar seas and deep waters, over time this situation can go to the tropics and start a reaction with terrible consequences.

Problems:

- A more normal acid can be harmful to some marine organisms, which can have bad consequences for the marine ecosystem, especially for organisms such as corals and mollusks for those shells, clams, turtles, snails, and crustaceans ... as the speed at which they produce their shells will fall between 25% and 10% respectively.

- Plankton can also fall into this situation, causing damage to the first links of the food chain from the sea, which may change the overall balance, as many organisms are eaten by fish and marine mammals.

- The larvae of most fish and marine organisms find their way to their habitat by the smell. In laboratory experiments, in waters with an acidity equal to the calculated for the end of this century, the larvae fail and can not find the way, since the acidity prevents them from finding the right smell.

By: Cris Alvarez and Merce Fernández ;)

Komodo Dragon

Sauropoda is a kind of family of monitor lizards, it comes from some islands in central of Indonesia. It is the largest lizard in the world, it is about two to three meters and it weighs about 70 kg. As a result of their size, they are the best predators in the ecosystems in where they live. Although these lizards eat mainly of carrion and they also hunt.

The first time Western scientists studied the Komodo dragon was in 1910. Their exceptional size and fearsome reputation makes animal in one of the most popular animals in zoos. In the wild are an endangered species, its range has been reduced beacuse the human activities and are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. They are protected by Indonesian law, and a national park, Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to contribute to their conservation.
Their reproduction season begin between July and August and egg laying in September. Deposited about twenty eggs in nests abandoned megapode, and incubated for seven or eight months, until they born in April, when insects are more abundant. Young people are vulnerable, so they often live in trees, so they are protected from predators and cannibalistic adults. It takes approximately three to five years to mature and can live to fifty years. These lizards are among the few vertebrates capable of reproduction by parthenogenesis, a process by which the females can lay viable eggs in situations of absence of males.


By: Martín Goce and Pedro Liz

Donkeys

Donkeys were first domesticated around 3000 B.C, probably in Egypt or Mesopotamia, and have spread around the world. They continue to fill important roles in many places today. While domesticated species are increasing in numbers, the African wild donkey and another relative, the Onager, are endangered. As "beasts of burden" and companions, asses and donkeys have worked together with humans for millennia. CHARACTERISTICS: Donkeys vary considerably in size, depending on breed and management. Donkeys live of 30 to 50 years.

Donkeys are adapted to marginal desert lands, and have many traits that are unique to the species as. Wild donkeys live separated from each other. Donkeys have a very loud lenguage, which help keep in contact with other donkeys over the wide spaces ("bray"), which can be heard for over three kilometers. Donkeys have larger ears than horses. Their longer ears may pick up more distant sounds. BREEDING:

Female are normally pregnant for about 12 months, though the gestation period varies from 11 to almost 14 months female usually give birth to a single foal.

NUTRITION: Donkeys can break down near-inedible vegetation and extract moisture from food . Donkeys need smaller amounts of feed. Donkeys are ervivorous, namely, eat all kinds of vegetables.

HISTORY: The ancestors of the modern donkey are the Nubian and Somalian subspecies of African wild ass. Remains of domestic donkeys dating to the fourth millennium BC have been found in Ma'adi in Lower Egypt, and it is believed that the domestication of the donkey was accomplished long after the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats. Donkeys were probably first domesticated by pastoral people in Nubia, and they supplanted the ox as the chief pack animal of that culture. The domestication of donkeys were vital in the development of long-distance trade across Egypto.

For over 6,000 years, the donkey was domesticated, used as a beast of burden. Because of transport and mechanization of agriculture donkeys are disappearing. Dinsminuido in a year over a million.

In Spain, the ancient tradition of using donkeys. Basically as a tool in the field, transporting passengers or goods by our difficult and mountainous geography Today it is occasionally found in these tasks, as they have been replaced by machines.

Traditional uses:

-Transportation herds

-Farming.

-Transportation (fuel, water, rocks, grass, ...)

-Transport by car.

-Spin the wheels of the mills and water wheels.

-Transport of light artillery.

Current uses:

-Breeders who use them for nature walks, hiking

-Therapies for people physical or mental disabilities.

-Attractions at fairs

Camelina sativa

Scientifics have discovered a new great energy source from camelina. The high oil content in camelina seeds increases the potential of this plant as a new source of energy.



Camelina (Camelina sativa) is native from Europe, but it has been introduced in North America possibly as a weed in the flax sector. It's a member of the plant family Brassicaceae. This plant has been cultivated traditionally as an oilseed used to produce vegetable oil, like for a lamp fuel and sometimes, not usually as cooking oil, among other uses.
Camelina is being investigated because of their exceptionally high levels (up to 45%) of omega-3 fatty acids, which is uncommon in vegetable sources. It's very suitable for use as cooking oil and tastes and aroma of almonds. In future, it will probably an important oil food.
By: Marta Iglesias

CLASSIFICATION OF VOLCANOES

A way of classifying volcanoes is by their frequency of eruption. A volcano can be ACTIVE if in the last 10.000 years it´s had some eruption and it has presented signs of activity how gas emissions or earthquakes. Now there are about 500 active volcanoes in the world, the majority along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'.

If a volcano didn´t present any activity in 10.000 years, this volcano is considerate DORMANT, this doesn´t means that this volcano can be present some eruption in the future.

The last way in wich a volcano can be presented is EXTINCT. Extinct volcano is this that is unlikely to erupt again, because the volcano no longer has a lava supply.

By: Alex Perez and Marcos Fariña

First Spanish flight with biofuel

Last Tuesday, Iberia airlines realized the first spanish flight with biofuel. The plane take off Madrid´s airport at 11 o'clock and land at 12 in Barcelona with no problems.
This 'green flight' is a 20% cleaner than flights using other fuels.
There was no need to adapt the plane for this biofuel, wich is formed in a 25% of a no-eatable plant called "camelina" and the 75% of tradicional fuel.
During the flight, there was consumed about 2,600 kilos of a mixture of camelina and fuel savings that have allowed about 1,500 kilos in CO2 emissions, according to Iberia.
I think it's a new form to contrubue to saving the air of the atmosphere and to help to the climatic change. Day by day we're making our world a place a little bit cleaner.
By: Marta Iglesias Martínez-Almeida