Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Gypsum crystals up to 11 metres long


Hard to believe but this photo isn't doctored.  These "mega-crystals were found a decade ago in caves next to the Naica mine near Chihuahua, Mexico." via New Scientist

8 comments:

Kay said...

Wow! Can you just imagine what it must feel like to be climbing around there? Hopefully they're not messing up the environment however.

RONW said...

Kay- sure is something different. It's basically gypsum (drywall) that they're walking around and probably some environmentally conscience scientists.

Brad Farless said...

Wow. That's impressive! I'd love to go see that. Funny thing is, I lived just across the border from the Mexican state of Chihuahua for two years and never even heard of the place. Oh well. Maybe in a few years.

RONW said...

Brad- they "discovered" this a few years back already. The neighborhood probably knew of it for generations.

Brad Farless said...

This might sound racist but I think that if they'd known about it before scientists had discovered it they'd have tried to find a way to sell it.

RONW said...

Brad- the staff and management would like to affirm that this is "not" a politically correct blog. I remember in the mexico city earthquake, someone sold his cousin the re-bars to reinforce the concrete, which led to many a building's collapse.

Brad Farless said...

So he sold bad re-bar to his own cousin? Wow. That's low.

RONW said...

Brad- that was purely an expression of speech on the overall practice of not observing building codes. For all I know, the entrepreneurs might have sold off the rebar for scrap iron.