Tuesday, October 28, 2008

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



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.

The Naica mine is located 100km to the North East of the city of Chihuahua. The crystals are selenite (gypsum). "The most important identifying characteristic is how soft gypsum is [2 on Mohs Scale], as any variety of gypsum can be easily scratched with a fingernail. Also because gypsum has natural insulating properties, all varieties feel warm to the touch."-wiki


When, about 600,000 years ago, the magma began to cool, the minerals started to precipitate out of the water, and over the centuries the tiny crystals they formed grew and grew until 1985, when miners unwittingly drained the cave as they lowered the water table with mine pumps.


Because the crystals resemble giant icicles, the picture suggests it must be very cold inside the Cave of Crystals - but appearances can be deceptive. In fact, the temperature is a sweltering 112F, with a humidity of 90-100 per cent.

That does not make sense to me. Cave temperatures are supposed to be the average yearly temperature of the surface. Since the Mexican desert would be cold at night, the temperature should be about half this, right? Well, according to nature, parts of the desert are more than 120F, so this cave must be under one of the hottest regions. "The Chihuahuan Desert's variation in elevation (between 1,000 and 10,000 feet) and temperature (from more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit to below-freezing temperatures)"
This is why cavers wear protective suits and carry backpacks of ice-cooled air.  Such conditions, and the fact that it takes 20 minutes to drive to its entrance through a twisting mine-shaft, haven't deterred would-be looters - one of the crystals bears a deep scar where someone has tried, and failed, to cut through it. But the cave has now been fitted with a heavy steel door, the better to preserve this beautiful wonder for generations to come. - dailymail


Thick, blocky crystals line the interior of a cave called the Shark's Mouth. Recently found not far from the Cave of Crystals, this cavern confirms the belief of geologists that numerous crystal-bearing deposits still await discovery in the rock. Because miners had been using explosives nearby, many crystals in the Shark's Mouth were covered with dust.

11 comments:

Ann said...

You know, of course, this cave is Superman's secret crystal palace, which contains all the knowledge "of the 29 known galaxies". It's no longer in the arctic - just one more change due to global warming.

Way Cool Job « Sara Today said...

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

Angela said...

Awesome, what a discovery! I am at lack of words to describe these beautiful pictures.

La said...

it's so awesome to see something like this..
makes you things again that your so small..n that is no need to be so proud of your self right know but to see how great your creator is.

Robert Myrland said...

This stones can save the planet in some great ways.
One examlpe is Piezoelectricity
In 1880, Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered an unusual characteristic of certain crystalline minerals:
when subjected to a mechanical force, the crystals became electrically polarized. Tension and
compression generated voltages of opposite polarity, and in proportion to the applied force.
Subsequently, the converse of this relationship was confirmed: if one of these voltage-generating
crystals was exposed to an electric field it lengthened or shortened according to the polarity of the field,
and in proportion to the strength of the field. These behaviors were labeled the piezoelectric effect and
the inverse piezoelectric effect, respectively, from the Greek word piezein, meaning to press or squeeze.
Although the magnitudes of piezoelectric voltages, movements, or forces are small, and often require
amplification (a typical disc of piezoelectric ceramic will increase or decrease in thickness by only a
small fraction of a millimeter, for example) piezoelectric materials have been adapted to an impressive
range of applications. The piezoelectric effect is used in sensing applications, such as in force or
displacement sensors. The inverse piezoelectric effect is used in actuation applications, such as in
motors and devices that precisely control positioning, and in generating sonic and ultrasonic signals.

In otter words this stones with the rigth quality can produce a lot of electric power if its the right quality and it is done right.
Need only to large stones to produce electric power to the whole planet.
If someone can help me get one stone for make a prototype, it would help a lot in my task to help this planet that is on its way to die.


Regards,
Robert Dave

Megan Respondek said...

This is so cool! I can't believe how BIG the crystals are! If I went on vacation I would definitely come here!

RDM said...

How to get one stone? I need one for important R&D. About 300mm to 500mm long and natural cylindrical would be best.
This is not a quest from a materialistic person, I am simply out for a crystall stone for R&D into important fields of alternative energy.
Anyone knows someone that owns a stone please contact me, and I dont need to buy the stone, the owner can be part of the deal so that he gets his share of the R&D that comes out from it.

jnanarama said...

Gypsum is not a very hard mineral.. 2 on the Moh's hardness scale is just one (of ten levels) harder than talc. These are not really hard "stones" like quartz. I don't know if gypsum has a natural frequency like quartz does, either. RDM You could be wasting your time.

abitaskew said...

Thanks for mentioning the properties of these crystals. Specific geometric shapes have been known to effect life-cycles of species. Cymatics, The study of vibration and it's effects on life will yield new insight to how we can relate to the earth.

-CGWj

Saoirse said...

Ann, you are awesome beyond words for the fortress of solitude reference. This is incredible, just gazing at the images which are amazing, but probably don't do this discovery justice, leaves me inspired and in awe.

RDM said...

In my lab I am doing free energy R&D and have done that for about 10 years. Successfully more energy out than put into the system. 24Watt input (tensor) and 73.4Watt output and that is alone on just only one tesla coil fo the bi-filar type. There is 29 more coils to go on without xxx extra input on the prime mover. Now that is moving parts and a hell of a work truh 6 years of development. Now why use moving parts? Isnt that primitive, yeah sure is I am primitive so here is the deal, I found a way to to convert internal piezo electrical pulses into electromagnetical pulses, in that way it pulses a coil and there u goooo... A wery powerfull no moving parts free energy generator with can solve the problems we have on the planet to day. Waste if time? No hell I dont think so, my R&D is not for nothing and I need a large stone now and I want one 1500mm tall and the more clear it is the better it is for generate EM waves. Calculations show 10MW of power from one ton stone. And that is without super conducting coil. If it is active cooled down with nitrogen the math shows 100MEGA WATT with nice usable current for any house or car.