Misteri Gua Kristal “Fortress of Solitude”
Setelah ditemukannya mineral “Kryptonite” kemudian pada bulan April para penambang menemukan kristal-kristal raksasa yang terpendam ribuan kaki dibawah Pegunungan Naica disebuah padang pasir Chihuahua, Meksiko.
Kristal-kristal raksasa itu mengingatkan tentang Superman, dalam cerita Superman dia mempunyai rumah/tempat tinggal yang dinamakan Fortress of Solitude.
Fortress of Solitude merupakan kumpulan balok kristal dengan ukuran yang sangat besar dan kompleks.
“Ini merupakan keajaiban alam”, ungkap Garcia Ruiz dari Universitas Granada.
Menurut Garcia, kristal tersebut dapat tumbuh dengan pesat karena terendam dalam air kaya mineral dengan range temperatur yang stabil dan terbatas sekitar 136 derajat Fahrenheit (58 derajat Celcius). Pada suhu ini, mineral anhydrite dalam jumlah berlebih di air kemudian melarut menjadi gypsum, sebuah mineral halus yang kemudian membentuk kristal-kristal besar di gua Naica.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Scienc...=1143#fortress
Giant Crystal Cave's Mystery Solved
t's "the Sistine Chapel of crystals," says Juan Manuel García- Ruiz.
The geologist announced this week that he and a team of researchers have unlocked the mystery of just how the minerals in Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) achieved their monumental forms.
Buried a thousand feet (300 meters) below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert, the cave was discovered by two miners excavating a new tunnel for the Industrias Peńoles company in 2000.
The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons.
"It's a natural marvel," said García-Ruiz, of the University of Granada in Spain.
To learn how the crystals grew to such gigantic sizes, García-Ruiz studied tiny pockets of fluid trapped inside.
The crystals, he said, thrived because they were submerged in mineral-rich water with a very narrow, stable temperature range—around 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius).
At this temperature the mineral anhydrite, which was abundant in the water, dissolved into gypsum, a soft mineral that can take the form of the crystals in the Naica cave.
The new findings appear in the April issue of the journal Geology.
(Related" "Photo in the News: Giant Crystal-Filled Cave Discovered in California" [September 26, 2006].)
Volcanic Activity
The mining complex in Naica contains some of the world's largest deposits of silver, zinc, and lead.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...-crystals.html
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