The Cave In Mexico Where Crystals Grow To Six Times The Size Of A Human

[Judi Lynn]

This cave is home to some of the biggest known crystals on the planet.

author
CHARLIE HAIGH

Published
April 4, 2023



The brittle and condensation-covered crystals are dangerous to traverse. Image credit: Paul Williams / Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Discovered in the year 2000, the Cave of Crystals sits some 300 meters (984 feet) below the surface of the Sierra de Naica Mountain in Chihuahua, Mexico. Home to some of the largest known crystals on the planet, this vast, otherworldly cavern is both beautiful and deadly.

Occupying a U-shaped cavern in the depths of the mountain, the Cave of Crystals measures 30 meters by 10 meters (98 by 33 feet) and is covered top to bottom in enormous cloudy-white selenite gypsum crystals. The tallest of the cave’s crystals, one of the largest in the world, weighs a whopping 12 tonnes (13.2 tons) and stands 1 meter (3.2 feet) wide and 11.4 meters (37.4 feet) tall – that’s six times the height of a human!



Note the person for scale. Image credit: Alexander Van Driessche / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Conditions in the cavern
While its picturesque interior may look like the perfect photo-op, the Cave of Crystals is closed to the public as the conditions inside are both treacherous and potentially deadly.

With a stable interior temperature of around 58 degrees Celsius (136 degrees Fahrenheit), and humidity levels that reach between 90 and 99 percent, spending any longer than 10 minutes in the cavern unprotected could lead to a build-up of fluid in the lungs and even death.

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/the-cave-in-mexico-where-crystals-grow-to-six-times-the-size-of-a-human-68302