Inside Mexico’s Giant Crystal Cave: Science and Survival Below the Surface

In this episode of Wildly Curious, hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole venture into one of Earth’s most extreme environments: the Cave of Crystals in Naica, Mexico. Discovered in 2000, this surreal underground world holds colossal gypsum crystals, some reaching over 30 feet in length and weighing as much as 55 tons. With temperatures soaring up to 122°F and nearly 100% humidity, the cave is as hostile as it is mesmerizing. Discover the science behind these mammoth crystals, the unique conditions that allowed them to form, and the challenges scientists face while studying them. Join Katy and Laura as they delve into the mysteries of this geological wonder.

Perfect for science enthusiasts, geology buffs, and anyone captivated by the extreme and unusual wonders of our planet!

Transcript

 Laura: Hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: And I'm Katy. and we're talking cave shit today. I

Laura: bout some caves.

Katy: talking about caves. Which if you haven't listened to the episode that Laura and I did on caves a while back when to Laurel. Oh my gosh,

Laura: just like, we were like, you know what, this is going to be a great idea, but I feel like a lot was probably [00:01:00] lost in translation, but it's probably still entertaining,

Katy: Oh, no, I went back and I listened to it not too long ago and I laughed I mean like I normally do I laughed so hard at so many parts because my

Laura: two weirdos walking through a cave, interviewing random people, just hoping for a good experience and wondering if any of what we're doing is going to translate, because I feel like a cave is a very visual experience,

Katy: but I feel like it did. I feel like it. I feel like it did I feel like it did and i've had some people that have reached back out and was like, oh, yeah I know. I that's that was a funny episode still my favorite line in there is shout out to bill That old guy

Laura: Of the counter.

Katy: Yeah, Bill. Shout out to Bill. Poor Bill.

He's probably still there. 800 year old Bill. Alright, so this is the

Laura: well, speaking of 800 billion years old, no, no, not quite that old. No, way older. No, not, okay, sorry. I lost. Old, old, can't think of my

Katy: Maybe not as old as Bill, but old.

Laura: as [00:02:00] Bill. But my caves, which actually Katie and I both had the same idea, but I got to it first, was the Cave of Crystals, which is also such a cool name.

The Cave of Crystals, which is in, in Mexico. This is the most recent discovery of the ones that I have covered. And as soon as I found out about this, because I found out about this when it got discovered, and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever! This is very much like a geological wonder.

 The first one I did was biology, second one, culture, this one, just straight up rocks and freaking coolness. This place was discovered in the year 2000 by a mining company of all people, called Industrias Penoles. And they were digging in, near the Chihuahuan desert. And there was essentially a small mountain there and they're digging into this mountain and they're digging in and they're finding the ores that they want to.

And this whole area was volcanic at one period of time. But finally they like chunked through and they found an area that was full of water. And so all [00:03:00] mining companies, they pump water out to get to what's below. And when they did that, they found. The world's largest crystals that, that anybody's ever seen.

 These are giant crystals of gypsum. And when I say giant, I mean like, Something from Minecraft, or Pandora, or something that is not on this planet. Superman, something not from Earth. They're 12 meters long, 1 meter wide. Crystal spikes coming out of the Earth. That's freaking huge. And, they weigh 40 to 50 tons per crystal.

Katy: Which is insane.

Laura: That's so heavy. And so they are gypsum. So how did all of this happen? Well, about 26 million years ago, so maybe as old as Bill, 

Katy: Poor Bill. Shout out to Bill.

Laura: Magma rose up and formed this mountain, and while it was forming this mountain, it [00:04:00] forced hot, hot mineral water into the surrounding limestone rock. And as you might have heard us talk about before, especially if you listened to our cave episode a couple seasons ago, limestone is like the primary cave rock.

It's a soft thing that is easily dissolved. So there's lots of holes and pores and things. So when this hot mineral water is being forced through the limestone, the water became rich in calcium sulfate, and gypsum became the most dominant mineral in the water. And as the water cooled, it stayed super saturated.

Okay, so in order to make crystals, you have to have a super saturated solution. That means that nothing, it's so filled with a Solute. So filled with stuff. Let's say you're stirring, I'm trying to think of how to explain this. Let's say you put salt in water, and you're stirring it, and the salt all dissolves.

And you put more salt in, and it all dissolves. You put more salt in, and it all dissolves. You want to get to the point where no more salt dissolves. It just stays as a solid. That means, that [00:05:00] your solution is super saturated. Same with this. This happened in nature. It stayed just perfect.

barely super saturated and became the perfect atmosphere for growing these large gypsum crystals because it cooled over millennia. Okay. If it had cooled quickly, it wouldn't, the crystals wouldn't have formed the size they were maybe smaller. But over millennia of cooling, they grew infinitesimally.

But to huge proportions and so they actually tried to make they were like, okay, well, how old are these crystals? It's pretty hard to tell unless you grow them in a lab and then just extrapolate the numbers. So by doing this in lab, in the lab, growing them in these conditions, they estimate that it took 1 million years to form

Katy: That's insane.

Laura: One sheet of paper thickness,

Katy: Oh my

Laura: or no, wait, no, it took, sorry, it took one million years for them to form each crystal, which means every 200 years, a layer that's [00:06:00] the thickness of a piece of paper was added.

Katy: Gosh.

Laura: And specifically, these gypsum crystals are transparent and colorless variety known as selenite. So also just freaking gorgeous. Transparent and colorless, just pure crystals. So the, when the mine was draining the water, they revealed these crystals, and they actually could have kept growing, they were still growing.

But now they're not because they're out of the water. So once the crystals aren't in water, they don't grow anymore. It's not like a stalagmite They're not like, dripping to form more. They're just donezo. In fact, they're actually going to start to that they're in the air, unfortunately. Of course you'd be like, wow, why didn't everyone in the world come to see these amazing crystals?

Because if I could have, I totally would have, except it is an incredibly dangerous place to visit. The temperature underground there, again, weirdly enough, because it's underground, so normally underground is like 55 degrees, because this is in I guess because of like the volcanic [00:07:00] activity of being underground, it is 122 degrees down there.

Katy: Oh my gosh!

Laura: not that deep underground. With a 90 percent humidity. So again, no cooling down when you sweat, that's it. You don't cool off. So you actually can become incredibly like you have to wear, they were wearing special suits so that you didn't just die.

Katy: I imagine, yeah.

Laura: physically because of, you know, you're climbing over these crystals and through the caves and things.

And the researchers who are allowed down there have to go through a health check before they're allowed to go down there to make sure they can survive the conditions. And they're only allowed down in that room for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Because it's just too dangerous.

Especially because, like I said, those crystals are 40 to 50 tons. And without water to hold them up. Because they're like sideways. And gypsum is really, a really, really soft rock. They're very prone to cracking, and you would just die. If you got, you would be crushed.

Katy: I was gonna say, yeah, that [00:08:00] you just Don't even stand a chance. You're just

gone. 

Laura: actually another room in this cave called the Room of Swords, and it's very, it's much smaller gypsum crystals, and by small still like two feet long crystal spikes. But that one was higher up so it cooled more quickly, so you can see if you look up pictures, you how small those spikes are versus how big the ones down lower were and cooled more slowly.

However, or maybe as a bonus, it's like a lost treasure because in, in 2015, a leak happened in the mine elsewhere and they couldn't drain it fast enough. To allow it to be safe. Yes, this place is still out of water, but they had to shut down that section of the mine, and they have not opened it back up.

So, since 2015, it has been closed to humans. Maybe they'll get in another way another time? They're still mining this mountain, they might end up coming in through another direction. But you never know, it might be sealed up to time, that was our one moment to see it, and now it's gone forever.

And like I said, unfortunately, these will deteriorate over time as [00:09:00] they're exposed to air. But what an incredible, man, I would

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: so much to go see them.

Katy: Yeah, that would be cool. I mean mine's 120 degrees, which to be fair That's like texas. So I mean

Laura: Right.

Katy: I can't handle it.

Laura: 10 to 15 minutes. Hashtag worth it. Oh my gosh.

To feel that small and see something like, I just, I'm already think the caves are one of the most beautiful things. I went to another

one this summer, just with the, my campers that I had for camp. And I'm talking like a really tiny cave, but I could not get over how beautiful it was.

And so to imagine space. Bikes. I just, I would be like, oh!

Katy: Right It would be pretty

Laura: It would just be a magical, magical place.

Katy: lord just be so happy there

Laura: I would be like in Middle Earth. 

Katy: Just happy.

Laura: just happy.

And that's the Cave of Crystals. 

Katy: Right, yeah, Cave of Crystals. That was a good one. That was, again, that was one that Laura [00:10:00] and I both, we had on our list. So I didn't do a ton of research into it. But I knew enough about it because there's all kinds of

Laura: Yeah, like a Time article and all kinds of things.

People were like, this is pretty cool.

Katy: it. Yeah. So make sure you guys check out on Patreon.

We'll post some pictures and stuff up on there. And then next week, regular long episode. And then after that, 

Laura: last Cave Chronicle. 

Katy: Yeah, Last Cave Chronicle, and I'm going to be talking, about, cheddar.

Laura: Cheddar?

Katy: Yep, but not the cheese, but spelled like the cheese.

Laura: I'm

interested. 

Katy: there's your cliffhanger so make sure you guys check us out on Patreon, and then we will talk to you next week.

Laura: See ya, everybody.