Fortress of Solitude

Mexico - Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) discovered 2000 is buried 300 m below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert:

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.

Volcanic activity that began about 26 million years ago created Naica mountain and filled it with high-temperature anhydrite gypsum (giant shards of which are pictured above).

When magma underneath the mountain cooled and the temperature dropped, the anhydrite began to dissolve. The anhydrite slowly enriched the waters with sulfate and calcium molecules, which for millions of years have been deposited in the caves in the form of huge selenite gypsum crystals

Mystery of this mineral beauty was solved 2007:

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.

national geographic

thats pretty cool. what are the uses of this element anyways? or just make it into somekind of national park?

This is simply amazing! I will be stealing all that stuff!

Pretty cool, I would love to visit this place someday, I would also love to get a couple of the huge crystals for my house. That would rock.

and heres what you need to know about Gypsum