A gypsum crystal: This crystal, less than a foot tall, can still focus a tremendous amount of chi. Think about what a 36-footer could do!
Courtesy Tjflex2You heard it here first, y’all (unless you heard it somewhere else first): there’s a cave 1000 feet below the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico, full of crystals dozens of feet long, and thousands of pounds in weight. At least one of the crystals, made of gypsum, is 36 feet long, and weighs over 55 tons. Think of all the powerful spiritual energy there!

The massive crystals grew so large thanks to the 138-degree, mineral-rich water that used to flow through the cave. This mineral soup was perfect for making mega crystals, but lead to the deaths of dozens of New Age crystal prospectors and treasure seeking paladins. (This is an assumption based on my somewhat limited knowledge of crystals and caves.)

The caves were uncovered by miners excavating a new tunnel for a lead and silver mine in the Naica mountain. This happened back in 2000, but I only read about it today, because a story on it will appear (or appears) in the November issue of National Geographic. (Check out those links, by the way—they have pictures, and the caves do look awesome.)

Tags : caves, crystals, gypsum, Mexico

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Skylights to possible Mars caves

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano.

Hot spots

Mars "caves": Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/USGSUsing infrared imaging, the holes showed up as bright "hot spots" in photos taken during the cold of night (see right hand photo). In daytime shots they were colder than their surroundings (middle photo). The left photo uses the visable spectrum. This possible cave skylight informally called "Annie," has a diameter about double the length of a football field.

Seven Sisters

Seven SistersThe discovered holes, dubbed "Seven Sisters," are at some of the highest altitudes on the planet, on a volcano named Arsia Mons near Mars' tallest mountain.

What are they?

A report of the discovery of the possible cave skylights by Cushing and his co-authors was published online recently by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The new report proposes that the deep holes on Arsia Mons probably formed as underground stresses around the volcano caused spreading and faults that opened spaces beneath the surface. Some of the holes are in line with strings of bowl-shaped pits where surface material has apparently collapsed to fill the gap created by a linear fault. NASA.gov.

Tags : space, mars, caves, Mars Odyssey, Seven Sisters, Cushing, Geophysical Research Letters

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Darkness: What the prehistoric cave looked like before its discovery.

A prehistoric ecosystem, sealed off from the rest of the world for millions of years, has been discovered in a cave in Israel. Animals found in the cave are unknown to science, and include at least eight new species. Located more than 320 feet beneath the surface near the central Israeli town of Ramle, the cavern runs for about one and half miles and contains an underground lake.

The new species found in and around the lake include four crustaceans and four terrestrial creatures. The largest is a two-inch long albino crustacean with a cigar-shaped body, six legs and pincer claws. Oddly, two of the crustaceans are salt-water variety, and two are freshwater species. Scientists think this indicates they arrived from two different sources and at two different times. And because they evolved in an environment of total darkness, all the creatures are blind.

"Every species we examined had no eyes which means they lost their sight due to evolution," said Dr. Hanan Dimentman of the Hebrew University Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences.

Since sunlight never reaches the cave, photosynthesis can't take place so there are no plants in the system. However, bacteria found in the lake are thought to serve as a food source for the life forms.

Dimentman expects further exploration will produce even more new species. "This is the first discovery of terrestrial animals found only in a cave and not on the surface," he said. "Ecologically, this is a unique cave unparalleled anywhere else in the world."

Tags : evolution, new species, caves, ecosystem, Dr. Hanan Dimentman, Israel, crustacean

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