Fortress of Solitude-like Cave Houses Ridiculously Slow-Growing Crystals

Researcher uses a custom-built, ultrasensitive microscope to  determine that a sample grew 0.000000000014 millimeter per second—the equivalent of a pencil width every 16,000 years.

NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

The 36-foot-long beams of gypsum in Mexico’s Cave of Crystals are the largest exposed crystals on earth. Now Spanish crystallographer Juan Manuel García-Ruiz has awarded them another record: They exhibit the slowest crystal growth ever measured.

The cave’s stable temperature and mineral content fostered slow but steady growth for a million years or more. Such conditions may be ideal for crystals, but not for those studying them. “You’re in the house of Superman,” García-Ruiz says of the 110 degree, 99 percent humidity chamber. “But if you stay for half an hour, you die.”

Jennifer Barone
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Fortress of Solitude-like Cave Houses Ridiculously Slow-Growing Crystals

Researcher uses a custom-built, ultrasensitive microscope to  determine that a sample grew 0.000000000014 millimeter per second—the equivalent of a pencil width every 16,000 years.

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Jennifer Barone

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The Great Barrier Reef Experiences Largest Annual Decline in Nearly 40 Years

Slingshot Tongues of Chameleons and Salamanders Could Transform Tech in Medicine and Space

At Almost 500 Feet Below the Water, Experts Heard the Sounds of the Elusive Beaked Whale

Sharks Began Roaming the Oceans 400 Million Years Ago as Deep-Sea Bottom-Dwellers

This Adorable Bumpy Snailfish Is One of Three New Species Discovered in the Deep-Sea

Fossils of Extinct Coelacanths Faced a Case of Mistaken Identity for Over a Century

Ghost Sharks Grow Retractable Teeth Out of Their Forehead – Not to Eat, But to Mate

Rodents' Oddly Humanlike Thumbnails Have Let Them Feast on Nuts Since Ancient Times

New Species Identified On Antarctic Seafloor that was Once Covered By a Massive Ice Sheet

Rainbow Shrimp Vision Is the Most Powerful of Any Animal on Earth, But We Don’t Know Why

Are Animals Like Mountain Lions and Bears Leaving Yellowstone National Park?

The Evolution of this Eyeless Fish Helps us Pinpoint When Caves Started to Form

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Fortress of Solitude-like Cave Houses Ridiculously Slow-Growing Crystals

Researcher uses a custom-built, ultrasensitive microscope to determine that a sample grew 0.000000000014 millimeter per second—the equivalent of a pencil width every 16,000 years.

Newsletter

Jennifer Barone

Published in:

Water Wars

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Researcher uses a custom-built, ultrasensitive microscope to  determine that a sample grew 0.000000000014 millimeter per second—the equivalent of a pencil width every 16,000 years.