Pictures: Return to the Crystal Caves

Mineral Garden

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT.

Pictured in December 2009, crystalline "cauliflower" sprouts from the floor and ceiling of the newfound Ice Palace, found about 500 feet (150 meters) underground, above the Cave of Crystals. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

The Ice Cube

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

In 2009 an explorer in the Cave of Crystals chills in the Ice Cube (right), an air-cooled, plastic-sided tent intended to allow for two-hour missions in the Naica caves' deadly heat and humidity.

In this cave's extreme heat and moisture, though, the portable shelter never cooled down enough to bring the explorers' overheated bodies back to safe levels. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

The Sword in the Stone

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

So-called Excalibur rises from the floor of the Cave of Crystals. The bladelike beam displays the jewel-like contours so far seen in no giant crystals outside the Cave of Crystals, according to mineralogist John Rakovan of Miami University in Ohio. Read full story >>sparkle on the floor of the newfound Ice Palace cave in 2009. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Spun Crystal

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

Like fiber optic threads, rare crystal formations sparkle on the floor of the newfound Ice Palace cave in 2009. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Live, Active Cultures

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

Scientists Penelope Boston, Michael Spilde, and Danielle Winget (left to right) collect samples from a puddle in the Cave of Crystals in December 2009. Later, lab analysis revealed as many as 200 million viruses in a single drop of the cave's water. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Fortress of Solitude

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

In the Cave of Crystals three scientists wear custom-made, 45-pound (25-kilograms) cooling suits that extend mission times from 15 minutes to an hour. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Chilling Out

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

Scientists rest in a cooling tent at an underground base camp outside the Cave of Crystals. That cavern's combination of 90 percent humidity and a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) can kill an unprepared human in just 30 minutes. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Stranger in a Strange Land

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

The Cave of Crystals would naturally be filled with scorching water, were it not for industrial pumps that facilitate the mining of silver, zinc, lead, and other minerals in the caves. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Heart of Glass

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

Scientist Sandra Briceño Prieto examines a gypsum sample from the Cave of Crystals. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010

Touchy Situation

Photograph courtesy Oscar Necoechea, Speleoresearch & Films/NGT

More than a hundred giant crystals have formed in the two-story-tall, football-field-size Cave of Crystals. Read full story >>

Published October 8, 2010