Amazing cave in Mexico holds remarkable beauty, but enjoy it too long and it could kill you
"Cristales cueva de Naica" c/o Wikimedia Commons
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 7:50 PM - While the incredible latticework of immense crystals that crisscrosses this underground marvel could figuratively take your breath away, as the video below describes, the conditions in the cave could literally do so, killing you in as little as 10 minutes!
Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales, also known as the Giant Crystals Cave, is one of the most incredible locations on our planet, and we've apparently only known about it for about 14 years. However, as SciShow host Hank Green explains below, the effects of staying in this cave, without the benefit of some pretty major protective gear, have a really bad effect on the human body.
CLICK BELOW TO WATCH: "If you managed to make the same descent the miners did, you'd only get to see the crystals for about 10 minutes, since that's roughly how long the human body can survive, unprotected, in the cave..."
Although Hank only mentions one other similar cave, the Cave of Swords, people have actually discovered a total of five different caves of this type. The five - the Cave of Crystals, the Cave of Swords, the Queen's Eye, the Cave of Sails and the Ice Palace - all have different sized crystals, based on the slightly different conditions in each (namely the temperature and availability of minerals and water).
As the water must be continually pumped out of these caves to maintain them in their current (barely explorable) states, and without the water, the crystals will deteriorate, thus destroying the remarkable beauty, there's a conflict here. Eventually, the caves will win, though.
Due to the cost of keeping the water out of the caves, and the potentially lethal conditions contained within (at least without the use of expensive equipment), it's very unlikely that any kind of sustainable tourist industry could be built up around them. So, eventually, the pumps will be shut off, caves will refill with water, and the crystals will continue to grow. An interesting point brought up by It's Okay To Be Smart host Joe Hanson is that, given how these incredible locations were, unbeknownst to us, just tucked away under this volcanic mountain for nearly all of human history so far, how many other marvels like this are awaiting discovery in the world?
No wonder people crawl through the deepest caves in the world, when they have a chance to discover something like this (although given their distance to the surface, we can hope less-lethal).
