The largest natural crystals on Earth have been discovered in two caves within a silver and zinc mine near Naica, in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to mine officials. Reaching lengths of over 20 feet, the clear, faceted crystals are composed of selenite, a crystalline form of the mineral gypsum.
The gigantic plaster crystals that occupy the interior of the Mexican cave of Naica take growing until a million years, although recently they have only been shortages. Although they get to measure 11 meters in length and a meter of width, these selenitas (its scientific name) grow at a speed slow, incredibly equivalent to the thickness of a hair every 100 years and therefore much more reduced that the one of stalactites and stalagmites, have concluded the scientists have studied who them. Led by the the crystallographer Juan Manuel García Ruiz, of the CSIC, a Spanish-Japanese equipment it designed a highly sensitive microscope with which it studied samples of crystals of the cave, one of the several that contain these formation in the mine of Naica. The investigation is published in cover in the Proceedings magazine of the National Academy of Sciences (the USA).
“The growth of these formation is so slow that until now it was almost impossible to measure. We have obtained it thanks to a special microscope that we have designed in collaboration with a group of investigation of the University of Sendai, of Japan. This instrument has allowed us to consider that some of crystals of the cave have been growing during near a million years”, explains Garci'a Ruiz, of the Institute Andalusian of Sciences of the Earth. Indeed this Spanish scientist found a in Sendai completing the job when it happened the great earthquake of this year and these days he is in Mexico to continue it.
The crystals constitute a unique geologic patrimony that is precise to study for its conservation, and the study has demonstrated that the humidity and the temperature are the variables most important to control. The investigators analyzed the reactivity of plaster to different temperatures from underground waters of the mines of Naica, that flooded the Cave of Crystals throughout the growth process and allowed the formation of enormous selenitas. Tested indicated that the crystals began to grow when the temperature under 58 degrees Celsius in a very slow process next to the balance and stopped doing it to the 50 present degrees. To 55 degrees the microscope until now revealed the minimum speed of growth observed in any crystal. “The mines of Naica are rich in silver, lead and zinc, and at present they are continued exploding. For that reason no longer there is water in the cave and the crystals have stopped to grow, but someday, when they stop pumping the water towards the outside, the water returns to the room, the selenita crystals, that already are the majors of the world, will continue growing”, adds the investigator.
Read more about the Giant crystals cave at the following link below :
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