Abstract
Deep below a mountain near Naica, Mexico, miners searching for fresh ore deposits in 2000 came across an unexpected and awesome sight. Massive, milky-white crystals towered around them, filling a horseshoe-shaped cave. Luminous beams of gypsum bigger than telephone poles, nearly 12 m long and 1 m wide, gleamed in the miners’ lights, jutting in all directions out of the brown limestone walls, floors, and ceiling. The Cave of Crystals, as it became named, is nestled 290 m underground, topped by a mountain rich in lead, zinc, and silver. Since its discovery by the mining company Industrias Penoles, the subterranean chamber has drawn researchers from around the world, enticing them with both rare beauty and scientific mystery. Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz, a crystallographer at the University of Granada, traveled all the way from Spain to see the crystals for himself. Garcia-Ruiz had grown crystals in laboratory flasks since age 15, so
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