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| Gypsum |
This sample is from Safe Harbor, Pennsylvania.
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O.[3] It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer, and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard chalk and wallboard. Wikipedia
I could not see the crystals, even with my hand lens, at first. The field of view, FOV, here is 4.67mm or 4.56x on the sensor. That is pretty small, right?
I then remembered about seeing a show describing a cave in Chihuahua, Mexico. It is called the Naica Cave, aka the cave of giant crystals.
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| Gypsom Crystals in the Naica Cave |
The red things are people!
Gypsom crystals in the Naica cave. Naica, Saucillo Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Mine above is extracting silver, lead and zinc. It is extremely deep, about 500 ft.
It is hot, up to 135° F. People can tolerate about 10 min. in the 90 to 99% humidity.
Wearing special "cooling" suites people can remain for about 30 min.
The exploration has been thus extremely limited.
This picture and the comments are things I borrowed from a web site about the cave and crystals Just do a serch for Naica Cave or Cave of Crystal, Mexico.
National Geographic Magazine covered this cave in 2007 and again in 2008. Anybody have the issues?
This presented to show the contrast of size.
Larry's Images
Follow Larry's Images on Facebook.
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Gypsom crystals in the Naica cave. Naica, Saucillo Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Mine above is extracting silver, lead and zinc. It is extremely deep, about 500 ft.
It is hot, up to 135° F. People can tolerate about 10 min. in the 90 to 99% humidity.
Wearing special "cooling" suites people can remain for about 30 min.
The exploration has been thus extremely limited.
This picture and the comments are things I borrowed from a web site about the cave and crystals Just do a serch for Naica Cave or Cave of Crystal, Mexico.
National Geographic Magazine covered this cave in 2007 and again in 2008. Anybody have the issues?
This presented to show the contrast of size.
Larry's Images
Follow Larry's Images on Facebook.
If you wish to unsubscribe, email to larry@larrysimages.com with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
