Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • ZME & more
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
Home Other GeoPicture

GeoPicture of the week: Biggest crystals in the world

by Mihai Andrei
September 15, 2011
in GeoPicture
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

Nothing in the world can compare to Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals, found in Mexico. The world’s largest, broadest, and thickest crystals measure over tens of meters in length, and they are so clear, so luminous, and so huge that they just seem out of this world.

The cave is, of course, not open for visiting, and even for those who get inside it to study or take professional pictures, there is a 20 minute limit, for their own protection. The humidity there gets to 100%. For hundreds of thousands of years, groundwater saturated with calcium sulfate filtered through the many caves at Naica, warmed by heat from the magma below. As the magma cooled, water temperature inside the cave eventually stabilized at about 136°F. At this temperature minerals in the water began converting to selenite, molecules of which were laid down like tiny bricks to form crystals.

Via National Geographic

ShareTweetShare
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • ZME & more

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • ZME & more
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.