The Cave of Crystals discovered 1,000ft below a Mexican desert

[emad]

Until you notice the orange-suited men clambering around, it's hard to grasp the extraordinary scale of this underground crystal forest.



Nearly 1,000ft below the Chihuahua Desert in Mexico, this cave was discovered by two brothers drilling in the Naica lead and silver mine. It is an eerie sight.

Up to 170 giant, luminous obelisks - the biggest is 37.4ft long and the equivalent height of six men - jut across the grotto like tangled pillars of light; and the damp rock of their walls is covered with yet more flawless clusters of blade-sharp crystal.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1081072/Pictured-The-Cave-Crystals-discovered-1-000ft-Mexican-desert.html

[stubtoe]

1. Recommending - this is truly awesome.

Thanks much for posting.

[MidwestTransplant]

2. Was Superman at home when they went in?

[Arctic Dave]

14. HAHAHA. That is the first thing that came to me too.

Superman is going to be pissed about them B&Eing his house.

[wtmusic]

3. k&r

[tblue37]

4. Where is Superman? nt

[MercutioATC]

5. There's something not right with the first pic...

The scale of the people in relation to each other is off...

[htuttle]

10. I think the depth of field is just very high

Everything is in focus. They must have used some fairly bright lights or extremely fast film.

[ET Awful]

11. I disagree, a very wide angle lense will cause that effect, for instance

an animal pic is all I have handy, but:



The paw look disproportinately large compared to the body, but due to the wide angle lense and close proximity of the paw, it makes everything else look small.

An ultra wide angle lens (the cat picture was a 12mm lens) will cause that effect.

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Very wide-angle lens. They ARE inside a cave, and it was probably pretty hard

to get everything in one shot without resorting to extremes.

[GCP]

6. There's a National Geographic special about it

We saw it a few weeks ago - they'll prolly be repeating it on the Nat Geog channel if yo get it :)

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. And there's a 4 page spread on it in the current NG Magazine -

absolutely amazing.

[trotsky]

17. Yes - we caught that.

The cave had been flooded of course to form these crystals - they pumped it dry to explore but that results in a highly unstable situation. They are going to have to reflood it and seal it.

[Daphne08]

27. We watched it. Fascinating show.

The cave looked like an alien environment.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. OMG This is amazing! I sell crystals and this is just blowing me away. These

calcite crystals are magnificent.

[chemenger]

13. Crystals are selenite, a variety of gypsum,

not calcite.

Conditions inside the cave are hellaceous. 100% relative humidity and at least 140 degrees F. Explorers have to go in wearing ice-pack suits.

I'd give anything (ANYTHING) to go inside that cave for one hour.

[redwitch]

8. How beautiful!

I want to go there!

[kayakjohnny]

9. I'd be worried about bumping the one that was holding everything up.

Jst kidn .... That's awesome. Thanks for posting.

[Wilber_Stool]

19. You really aren't kidding.

As previously posted, they are a form of gypsum. About as hard as your finger nails. Collapse was a definite possibility when they were in the cave.

[ensho]

12. fantastic - thanks for posting

nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. Ooops! You're right! It said they were created with calcium sulphate and I immediately

thought calcite and not gypsum. I feel silly as I always have selenite on hand here.

A "baby"

[CoffeeCat]

18. My kids will love this!

This is something right out of "Dragon Tales." Parents of young kids, you know
what I'm talking about!

This is breathtaking!

It's so much fun when we discover something on Earth that has never been seen before.

...kinda gives ya hope about what remains undiscovered!

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. The pictures look shopped.

The light sources are too weird. Some are back lit with no visible source of light.

[progressoid]

22. Nope - LOTS of lights carefully placed (hidden) throughout the cave.

I'm sure it took a bit of planning and coordination to get the shot (speaking from experience) It's kind of like lighting a room for an Architectural Digest shoot.

Carsten Peter does some pretty good work: http://www.carstenpeter.com/index_en.php

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. Thank you for link to his work. Good reference for the pics above.

:wow:

[intheflow]

24. These shots are straight from National Geographic.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/crystal-giants/shea-text

[silverweb]

21. Gorgeous!

There's so much about our planet that we don't understand or even know about yet -- which makes it all the more tragic that our species is on the verge of making it uninhabitable (and unexplorable).

[pointsoflight]

26. Um, don't slip!!!

[bertman]

28. Shouldn't take long before they mine all those bad boys out. Donald Trump and friends

will just HAVE to put one in their master bathroom.

Incredible stuff.