Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Real Life Fortress of Solitude....

Stand back Superman. Silver miners in Mexico have stumbled upon a natural formation to put your crystal home to shame.....

Natural crystal formations dazzle in an environment hidden from modern man...and probably for a good reason. Turns out that you need a special suit filled with ice and a cool-air respirator to survive down here due to excessive heat and humidity. It was only discovered when a mine expansion broke through into this chamber of wonders.
Sadly, the mine owners have no plans to keep this gorgeous place open to the public...once they finish mining out the silver in the adjoining mine they will turn off the pumps keeping underground water at bay; letting this chamber fill up and be forever closed off from human eyes. Its amazing to think that geologists think the earth's crust is full of these wonders... and funny to think we know more about outer space than we do about our own fragile blue planet.
Here's a link to a short video shot by a BBC Science program, highlighting the caves. You'll get a good idea not only of the immense scale of these crystal pillars, but also of their absolute beauty.

2 comments:

Leah Z said...

I didn't notice the people in the photo, so when I watched the video I was shocked at the size. That is incredible!

Corine Moore said...

Gorgeous! :)

I would love to walk through that place!!!!