FOR A DROP OF CLEAR WATER THE IONIAN SEA

The Ionian sea(from Greek Iónion Pélagos) is the part of the Mediterranean sea which stands between the Eastern Italian coasts of Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Eastern Sicily to the West and Albania and Western Greece to the East. It stands from the Otranto canal in the North, while its Souther limit is uncertain because it becomes blue water or open sea. It is the deepest part of the Mediterranean sea: 4000m in a lot of parts and over 5000, Calypso Deep, in South-West part. Ther are a very few islands in the Italian part, while a lot of quite big islands are in the Greek part and they are called Ionian islands, such as Corfu, Zakynthos, Kephalonia, Ithaca Kephalonia.

BASILICATA IONIAN COAST Our Ionian coast is about 70 km long and three rivers flow into the Ionian sea. Now the shore is sandy and low with the Mediterranean bush, pinewood and the swamp wood.

THE MAIN SEA ELEMENTS NutrientiForme Nitrogen Nitrites, nitrate, ammonia Phosphorous Phosfphates Silicon Silicates Iodine and Bromine Iron, copper and other heavy metals Sali% sul totale dei Sali Sodium Chloride NaCl 77,8 Magnesium chloride MgCl 2 10,9 Magnesium Sulphate MgSO 4 4,7 Calcium Sulphate CaSO 4 3,0 Potassium Sulphate K 2 SO 4 2,5 Calcium Bicarbonate CaHCO 3 0,3 Magnesium Bromide MgBr 2 0,2 Others 0,6 Gas (from atmosphere) Nitrogen Oxygen Carbon dioxide

OUR SEA SAMPLE TAKING On April 7 th Luca took the sea sample

OUR ANALYS IN OUR LAB On April 8 th we started our analysis

OUR SET FOR SEA WATER ANALYSIS

First of all we measure the sea water temperature :18° C

Then we teste the water hardness using French degrees: 15°, quite hard.

The PH acidity of the water is :7,6

So the total hardness is between 9-11, an average value

Next we test the Magnesiun and the Calcium together: 1700 mg/l

Than we measure the quantity of Calcium: 25g/500mg and so we calculate the value of magnesium: 1200mg/l, which are good values!

Now we test Ammonium: < 0.05 mg/l which is below the average value of <0.25

How interesting it is to observe the change of the colours!

A drop from the little bottle can change the colour!

Now we test the Phosphate

Here we go with the tranformation …the result is: <0.02 mg/l Extraordinary!

The NITRITE: < mg/l

It is very important to shake the sample for the exact number of minutes!

The Nitrate : <0.5 ml/l

AMMONIUM: < 005 What a magnificent result!

This is the result of the Silicic acid : < 0.8 mg/l

What a magnificent value! In our sea Copper is < 0.1mg/l

…and before leaving our lab, we have to clean everything! A special thank to Ms Angela Varasano our Science teacher!

LICEO SCIENTIFICO “ENRICO FERMI” POLICORO-ITALIA