You have got to see this!

[SHANEA]

At first I thought I'd have to jump over to snopes, cause it couldn't be true.   But, since Natl. Geo has a page on it, it just must be true...

[Big Bender]

Homerboy and Shanea

The crystals in Naica are real.  They have been pretty popular  as photo subjects among the caving circles.  The crystals are located in the a mine in the Naica mining district located in the municipality of Saucillo in south-central Chihuahua State, 110 km directly southeast of Chihuahua.  At 1,382 meters and 27 degrees 52 minutes 00 seconds north and 105 degrees, 26 minutes, and 15 seconds west.  First mined in 1794, but with most activity occurring since 1951 when pumps were installed.  Basically, the mine is located in three different rock units mostly composed of limestone.  They are the Aurora formation, the Benevides Formation, the Lama de Plata Formation.  These formations are equivalent to the rocks that make up the Sierra Del Carman and Dead Horse mountains in the Big Bend area.  The mineral deposits are being mined for lead, zinc, copper, and to a lesser extent, silver, gold, tungsten, and molybdenum.  The deposits are all formed by hydrothermal action.  The rocks have been intruded with some igneous bodies and most of the minerals are formed in what are called skarn deposits and containing sulfides.  The sulfides are what help to make up the crystals since they are gypsum (calcium sulfate).  Gypsum, which is highly soluble in water, dissolves  When the solution becomes supersaturated, it can also be deposited.  A good example is dissolving sugar in hot water, letting it cool, then placing a small crystal in the glass.  Sugar will then grow into large crystals.  Basically, the same process takes place to form large crystals.  

Hope that helps,

Also, just read your post regarding your Mexico road trip.  I've been caving up in the Laguna de Sanchez area about 5 years ago.  Incredable place.  The mountains in that area are fantastic.  I remember the road in some places was located in the creekbed of a very narrow canyon, about a truck width wide.  Not a nice place to meet another truck.  Incredable area, Mexico is so nice.

Have you been over to Bustamante in NL.  You should come over in the first weekend in September, the Texas Cavers go down every year to help work at the Grutas del Palmito.  Incredable cave with one of the top 10 largest rooms in the world.  We work one day, go 4 wheeling in the desert on Sunday, and drive back on Monday.  The town folks put on a great feed in appreciation of the help.  There is a fantastic camping area in the canyon with an agua de ojo to swim in.

Geary

[homerboy2u]

Big Bender;

  I for one am greatful for your added information. I am the first to realize that in my country there are many palces, very hard to reach and will trust you being there first.

  I have been to Bustamante, N.L. , but i have not been to that cave in particular. I look forward in recieving added information, to maybe schedule a trip.

As far as the Laguna de Sanchez goes, here are some nice set of pictures from a trip , my club made some years ago. The Laguna picture should be on page # 4 , i believe.

Homero

[Big Bender]

Homero,

You may want to check out the following web page at the Texas Speleological Society.  http://www.cavetexas.org/

They have a nice page under ongoing projects along with a section on the Bustamante project under Mexico.  It also includes a nice section on traveling in Mexico which you might want to read and comment on since it may be out of date.  They are still making plans for this year's Bustamante Trip but I'm sure that you would be welcome.  We have boy scout troops from Monterrey that come up.  Usually about 100 people show up each year and work on Sat. then play on Sunday.  The organizers arrange a trip to sight see on Sunday, one year we went to the old Golendrines Mines north and east of Busta.  Other years, we've visited other mines near Candela, or gone to the rock art in the desert west of the gap in the Sierra del Bustamonte.  Anyway, there will probably be an announcement in the next month regarding the Busta project.

Also, I manage a piece of property in Edwards County which is located about 30 miles north of Del Rio.  The property is only 225 acres in size but has two great caves and some nice 4x4 roads to get to them.  It is owned by the Texas Cave Management Association.  Check out www.tcmacaves.org

Maybe we should get all the San Antonio Big Bend folks to meet out there with you and some of your 4wheel drive friends and go caving for the weekend.  Nothing real hard - but fun.

The caves are only an hour from Del Rio for you and about 3 hours from San Antonio.  We have a cabin on the property to stay at and some great camp sites.  Its a great place to watch the stars and drink beer and cook out,  If you and your friends would be interested, I would be happy to set it up this summer or fall.  It is certainly closer than BiBe, not quite as hot, and cheaper to get to.

The only requirement is that you bring digital photos of your 4x4 trips to show.  I'll bring the projector.

Geary

[Big Bender]

Homero,

Here is another link that was sent to me by a friend also interested in the site.  Excellent web page discussing the research going on.

In January 2006, the Geographical Association La Venta, an international team of cavers and researchers was entrusted by the Peñoles mining company, sole licensee of the Naica mine, to implement a research project on the cave for the next three years.

Link to the daily diary of the La Venta team exploring Nacia:

http://naica.laventa.it/naica-news.en.html

Geary

[homerboy2u]

:-k ...Hmm !!. Very tempting, very tempting indeed. Let me check it out and give you a final say.

[SHANEA]

Giant Crystal Cave's Mystery Solved

The following was just posted, but is really a follow on to earlier stories regarding this.
SEE ALSO:  National Geographic and BBC

It's "the Sistine Chapel of crystals," says Juan Manuel García- Ruiz.

The geologist announced this week that he and a team of researchers have unlocked the mystery of just how the minerals in Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) achieved their monumental forms.

Buried a thousand feet (300 meters) below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert, the cave was discovered by two miners excavating a new tunnel for the Industrias Peñoles company in 2000.

The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons.

"It's a natural marvel," said García-Ruiz, of the University of Granada in Spain.

To learn how the crystals grew to such gigantic sizes, García-Ruiz studied tiny pockets of fluid trapped inside.

The crystals, he said, thrived because they were submerged in mineral-rich water with a very narrow, stable temperature range—around 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius).

At this temperature the mineral anhydrite, which was abundant in the water, dissolved into gypsum, a soft mineral that can take the form of the crystals in the Naica cave.

The new findings appear in the April issue of the journal Geology.

Volcanic Activity

The mining complex in Naica contains some of the world's largest deposits of silver, zinc, and lead.

In 1910 miners discovered another spectacular cavern beneath Naica.

Its walls studded with crystal "daggers," the Cave of Swords is closer to the surface, at a depth of nearly 400 feet (120 meters).

While there are more crystals in the upper cave, they are far smaller, typically about a yard (a meter) long.

Nearly the Size of a Basketball Court

The Cave of Crystals is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in limestone rock about 30 feet (10 meters) wide and 90 feet (30 meters) long.

Its floor is covered in crystalline, perfectly faceted blocks. The huge crystal beams jut out from both the blocks and the floor.

"There is no other place on the planet where the mineral world reveals itself in such beauty," García-Ruiz said.

Volcanic activity that began about 26 million years ago created Naica mountain and filled it with high-temperature anhydrite, which is the anhydrous—lacking water—form of gypsum.

Anhydrite is stable above 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius). Below that temperature gypsum is the stable form.

When magma underneath the mountain cooled and the temperature dropped below 58 degrees Celsius, the anhydrite began to dissolve. The anhydrite slowly enriched the waters with sulfate and calcium molecules, which for millions of years have been deposited in the caves in the form of huge selenite gypsum crystals.

"There is no limit to the size a crystal can reach," García-Ruiz said.

But, he said, for the Cave of Crystals to have grown such gigantic crystals, it must have been kept just below the anhydrite-gypsum transition temperature for many hundreds of thousands of years.

In the upper cave, by contrast, this transition temperature may have fallen much more rapidly, leading to the formation of smaller crystals.

To Reflood or Not to Reflood

While the chance of this set of conditions occurring on other places in the world is remote, García-Ruiz expects that there are other caves and caverns at Naica containing similarly large crystals.

"The caves containing larger crystals will be located in deeper levels with temperatures closer to, but no higher than, 58 degrees Celsius," he said.

He has recommended to the mining company that the caves should be preserved.

The only reason humans can get into the caves today, however, is because the mining company's pumping operations keep them clear of water. If the pumping is stopped, the caves will again be submerged and the crystals will start growing again, García-Ruiz said.

So what happens if—or when—the mine is closed?

"That's an interesting question," García-Ruiz said.

"Should we continue to pump water to keep the cave available so future generations may admire the crystals? Or should we stop pumping and return the scenario to the natural origin, allowing the crystals to regrow?"

Posted by Caribbean at 11:07 PM

[tjavery]

The NG Channel is running a show on the cave this coming Sunday at 8pm (central). See this post:

http://www.bigbendchat.com/portal/forum/other-stuff/supermans-home-t6604.0.html