Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Mega Crystals of Naica Mine
Nestling up to a cauldron of pressurized, molten rock is almost never a good idea. But in Mexico's Naica mine, the payoff is worth the risk.
About 900 feet below the surface, there is a chamber filled with gypsum. It's the same stuff that goes in the drywall in your house, only in Naica it spent half a million years parboiling in a chamber filled with magma-heated water.
Suddenly miners showed up and started pumping the mineral-rich broth out to get at valuable silver and lead deposits nearby. The result is a cavern filled with crystals 36 feet long and weighing in at up to 55 tons, easily the largest in the world.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
