Cave of the Crystals

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The Cave of the Crystals


    The Cave of the Crystals is a cave with naturally occurring cave with massive selenite crystals, some can grow up to 4 feet in diameter, and 50 feet long. The Cave of the Crystals is located in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. Naica is on a very old fault. where underground magma chambers live under the cave. The magma heats groundwater that is filled with minerals, including lots of selenite. The hollow cave was filled with this hot mineral-rich water and remained that way for half a million years. Over those half a million years, the temperature of the water stayed constant at over 122 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing the selenite crystals to grow so large. 



    Modern-day mining technology allowed humans to witness this natural wonder by pumping water out of the 30-foot by 90-foot cave which was found in the year 2000. A scientific team explored the cave in detail in 2006, to survive and be able to work in the extremely humid, and high-temperature conditions, the team created their own suits that acted like coolers, along with cold breathing systems. Both were respectively named the Tolomea suit and the Sinsusit Respirator. Special overalls were fitted with a mattress of refrigeration tubes, connecting to a backpack weighing 44 lbs. It contained a chamber filled with cold water and ice. One worker with the intention of stealing crystals managed to fit through a narrow hole. He decided that taking some plastic bags filled with air would suffice in the caves, but this obviously didn't work. He lost consciousness in the cave and was later found thoroughly cooked. No, I am not joking. This is a great example of natural selection, as anyone who thinks that a couple plastic bags with fresh air deserves to find out why people don't use them in professional environments, or at all.


A man wearing Tolomea suit in the
Cave of the Crystals

    The large selenite crystals were uranium-thorium dated to determine their maximum age, and it came out to roughly 500,000 years old. Tests were also run to determine whether there were ancient bacteria living inside the selenite. The point was to detect the possible presence of those ancient bacteria inside small fluid and solid inclusions present in the selenite. There is a lot of activity going on inside that cave on a microbial level. Microbial life that lives off of sulfur, iron, and other chemical compounds have been found in the cave. Those microbes were not found in existing databases and are considered as alien to scientists. These microbes have either slowed their metabolisms to extreme levels or have put themselves into a dormant state. They are thought to be at least 10,000 years old, but some claim that they could be 50,000 years old. More studies about these microbes will help us learn about how these microbes can survive in such harsh environments.



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