Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Navel of the World 2009

Alfonso Antxia, a member of the Speleological Sciences team, is conducting speleological research on Easter Island in the Pacific.

We leave the coldness of the mathematical calculations and we will tell you about the trip undertaken by the friends of the expedition called “Navel of the World 2009”. Curiosity and curiosity have led them to one of the most remote corners of the planet. Participants in this scientific journey have been on the Pacific Easter Island since the beginning

of February. Before leaving to investigate the volcanic tubes of this mythical island, Teknopolis had the opportunity to speak with a member of this expedition.

On a rainy day in January, we found members of the Speleological Sciences team, Alfonso Antxia, at the Arrikutz cave in Oñati. There were no visitors, and Javier Les and Alfonso Corredor walked through the cave to see the state of the equipment installed there and collect data.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: Climatic data are being analyzed. We're making comparisons to see what effect visitors have on the cave. We were with him on the last visit of

Javier Les to Arrikut this winter. he is one of the members of the “Navel of the World 2009” expedition and has been studying the subsoil of Easter Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean since the beginning of February.

The expedition pursues a number of research objectives.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: It will be the largest cave system in Chile. Not only from Chile, it will probably be one of the biggest in the world. We will also study the waters to extract hydrochemical data, and we will also study the new prehistoric sites, where we have found many bones and

debris. This will be the fourth scientific trip to Easter Island by Basque researchers. On this occasion, archaeologists from the University of Santiago de Chile will also participate in the research work.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: we arrived in 2005 to see the potential of the island of Rapa Nui. We saw that there were many caves, that it had a lot of potential; and we began to explore the possibility of organizing a multidisciplinary team, the island to work with some

universities. Easter Island is created by volcanoes, with an extension of 165 square kilometers and three separate volcanic systems.

The volcanoes have formed a vast network of pipes, and about a thousand caves have been counted. However, most of them have not been investigated. The aim of the members of the expedition is to topograph and locate by GPS all the cave entrances found. This will allow them to mark the entries of the caves in the geological charts. For measurements in tubes and cavities, researchers will use laser meters, compasses and topography software.

The work will be carried out under really difficult conditions.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: Limestone caves are formed by water, holes are formed by water. But in this case, in the caves of the lava, the volcanic tubes emerge from the volcano, the lava passes, the whole wall solidifies, it remains solidified in the lava, but the tube remains empty. Here, for example, we can see the cave with stalactites, karst formations... But in volcanic tubes the walls are black-black; it is a melted rock. The caves are very narrow, usually very uncomfortable. When the rock solidifies, machetes of obsidian appear; the crystal melts and stops in the form of machetes, and for us to pass, we must carry many protections: elbows, knees, helmets, hard garments... Researchers hope

that the scientific results of the expedition will be relevant. In fact, their previous trips yielded very promising results. To date, 25 archaeological sites have been discovered, including workshops for the cultivation of obsidian and human remains.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: There is a stage in the history of Rapa Nui that happened 300 years ago: there was a civil war between them and this sequence is lost in their history. Archaeologists say that traces of these battles will probably remain in the underground world. During their research trip to

Rapa Nui in 2007, they also discovered a new geological structure.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: It was a new speleotema. They are called mucolytes and are made up of cyanobacteria. The bacteria eat rock opal and silica and form a special type of stalactites. Since

two new insect species were discovered in previous trips, the current expedition will also include biological samples.

JAVIER LES; ALFONSO ANTXIA SPELEOLOGICAL SCIENCES GROUP: They are colemboli that have been studied by Dr. Rafael Jordana and Dr. Enrike Bakero, professors of the University of Navarra. They are new species of insects, barely a millimeter long, living in caves, troglobes. It will

take weeks or months to discover the scientific results of this new expedition. In the meantime, it is possible to track the daily incidents of the expedition in the electronic passenger kaier http://rapanui2009.wordpress.com.