I picked up a National Geographic magazine at the physiotherapist office yesterday. It was dated 2008. Inside was the story of the Naica’s Cave of Crystals in Mexico. They were found within limestone rock in a mine. The crystal chamber is 358 feet long - it is like a womb or a chrysalis in shape. A very giant one. It contains selenite crystals. These turn out to be the largest crystals in the world. The longest one is 37 feet long.
It was found during mining activities. The cave was initially discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) in 2000. It was explored after that with the images below from that time. It reflooded in 2015, which means the crystals can continue to grow. It had been drained to protect the mining operations, and that’s when the crystals were explored. When not flooded, the temperatures are extremely high - people can only endure 10 minutes of exposure at a time. The air temperatures reach 58 degrees C with 90 to 99 percent humidity, preventing cooling via sweating. Special cooling suits had to be worn by the scientists exploring the cave(s). Here are pictures showing the scale of the crystals.
There are crystal caves all over the world that can be visited by us tourists. Here’s a top ten article - just the pictures are worth it. No need to leave that comfortable chair.
And then there’s Iceland’s Crystal Ice Caves - HERE. These are created by the snow compacting over time/centuries into what is called Firn - an intermediate state between snow and glacial ice where the air bubbles are squeezed out. It becomes blue. Isn’t that an amazing image below? A photographer’s dream of an image.
Look at this spring picture. Only a few days till March and it is “Meteorlogical Spring.”
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