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Name : Cave of Crystals

Location : Chihuahua , Mexico

The interior of the Cave of Crystals in Mexico with a person for scale.

Geologists explore the Cave of Crystals (Cueva de los Cristales) in Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Coordinates:27.850823490019174 , -105.4963675458159

The Cave of Crystals is an underground cavern fill with tree - size of it gypsum vitreous silica , including some of the large natural crystallization ever obtain . The cave is locate around 980 feet ( 300 measure ) deep and is connect to a lead story , zinc and silver mine in Naica , 65 miles ( 105 km ) southeast of Chihuahua City .   The mine was flooded almost 10 year ago after worker accidentallybroke into an aquifer , but the Cave of Crystals sits higher in the ground , meaning the water did n’t reach it .

Miners discovered the Cave of Crystals by chance in 2000 while drilling a side tunnel to assist ventilation in the mine . When they stepped at heart , they come upon a chamber throng with enormous , milky - white crystals — the largest measuring over 37 feet ( 11 time ) long and 3.3 feet ( 1 m ) wide . The crystal are made of selenite gypsum , a sulfate mineral that mannikin from salts dissolved in groundwater . It is so soft you could scratch it with a fingernail .

The interior of the Cave of Crystals with a geologist in the foreground.

The gypsum crystals in the Naica Mine are some of the largest-known natural crystals in the world.

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Mining operation in Naica began in 1974 , and several crystal - take caves have since been give away — include the Cave of Swords , which isstudded from floor to ceilingwith dagger - comparable crystal . But the Cave of Crystals is by far the biggest , stretching 360 substructure ( 110 G ) across with a maximal volume of 210,000 cubic feet ( 6,000 cubic meters ) — more than twice the size of an Olympic swimming pool . The cave is shaped like a horseshoe and carve out of limestone rock candy .

" It ’s the Sistine Chapel of crystals,“Juan Manuel García - Ruiz , a geologist with the Spanish National Research Council ( CSIC ) and at the University of Granada in Spain , who has hit the books the cave , told National Geographicin 2007 .

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The cave sits on a fault line and above a magma man-made lake forget 2 to 3 stat mi ( 3 to 5 klick ) beneath Naica . Roughly 26 million years ago , magma ascend from this chamber , coerce mineral - racy H2O up through cracks in the rock . The scald urine opened caverns in the limestone and formed deposits that crystalize over thousands of years as it slowly cool . temperature afterwards stabilized at around 136 degrees Fahrenheit ( 58 degrees Celsius ) , creating idealistic conditions for gypsum crystals to grow to gigantic proportions from a mineral called anhydrite .

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The conditions in the cave are just right for crystal , but they are virulent to humans . Temperatures stayed the same after the water drain but humidness hand over 90 % . At that humidity level , sweating has no cool down effect on the trunk . As a result , people need proper protection to detain in the cave for longer than 10 minutes . Walking among the crystals is also dangerous , because the beams are slick and with condensation and super tricky .

The crystals are develop more easy now they are n’t submerged , and their appearance will in all probability change over prison term as they become increasingly more dehydrated . But for now , the cave " is OK , " García - Ruiz severalize Live Science in an email .

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