What are Crystal Giants and Why are they Deadly?

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What are Crystal Giants?
Deep under a Mexican desert
lies a mysterious cave that’s
beautiful but deadly
Two brothers were drilling in the Naica mine in
Mexico when they revealed a geological wonder 
of the world, hundreds of thousands of years in
the making. The Cueva de Los Cristales, or Cave
of Crystals, is a glittering castle covered in some of the
largest crystals anyone has ever seen. Measuring over
11 meters – roughly the length of a bus – they have
risen in the extreme conditions of the cave.
Temperature is scorching at 44 degrees Celsius and
up to 100 percent humidity which means the air you breathe
quickly condenses inside your lungs. Geologists hell
bent on exploring the cave and living to tell the tale
had to don specially designed suits, covered with ice
packs. If they had taken their respirator mask off for
more than ten minutes, they would have fallen
senseless. However, what proves deadly for humans 
are actually the perfect conditions for growing crystals.

These monstrous formations are made of a soft
mineral called selenite and formed from groundwater
saturated with calcium sulphate, which was heated by
a magma chamber below. As the magma cooled, the
minerals in the water started to transform into selenite
and steadily built up.


The cave’s oldest resident is 600,000 years old – forming at the time when the ancestors of modern humans first appeared!

The crystals only stopped developing when miners
unintentionally drained the cave in 1985 while they
lowered the water table. But when the mine stops
being profitable, the owners of the Naica mine will
remove the pumps and the cave will flood once more.
The crystals will be lost, but we can take comfort in
understanding there must be more hidden marvels like this.
“We know more about the outer edges of the Solar
System than we do about the first kilometer of the
Earth’s crust,” Professor Iain Stewart told the BBC after

investigating the caves. “We can be sure there will 
be discoveries even more magnificent than Naica.” 

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