This chamber is over 3 miles long, over 600 feet tall, & 150 yards wide. Son Doong
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A Geological Tour of the “Two Most Exotic” Caves on Earth • Hang Son Doong - Viet Nam (contains world’s largest chamber) • Crystal Cave of Giants - Mexico (contains world’s largest crystals)
This chamber is over 3 miles long, over 600 feet tall, & 150 yards wide. Son Doong
This chamber is over 3 miles long, over 600 feet tall, &
150 yards wide. Son Doong
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The large caverns were discovered in 1991 Explored and mapped
in 2009 Published photos in National Geographic, January 2011
Meaning Mountain River Cave
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Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park Phong Nha is a limestone
plateau with over 300 caves, and less than half have been
explored... Ke Bang is a rare Green Tropical Forest with some of
the rarest plants and animals on our planet UNESCO gave it a top
designation for a park and heritage area... With influx of money
for scientific research and preservation in 2008.... However, it
has now made the top 10 tourist destinations in the world with
little protective services. Hang Son Doong Cave
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This chamber could house an entire block of 40-story
skyscrapers from New York City How do you take a picture like this
in complete darkness ??
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My 1967 camera case....
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Southeast Asia & China famous for Karst Terrain
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Howard Limbert at Cave Entrance He led a survey by British Cave
Research Association in April 2009 It was unexplored because
entrance was small, wind was fierce, & 300 repel
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The waters in cave have a pH = 7.5, allows calcite
deposition... stalagmite
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Looking almost straight up... See the hanging rope?
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Like a petrified waterfall, a cascade of scalloped limestone,
greened by algae growing from light of doline
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Scallop Length l is Inversely Related to Flow Rate Scallop
Formation: 1 = Laminar flow of water from left to right 2 = Switch
to Turbulent flow of water 3 = Eddy forms swirling water forms the
scallop 4 = Water eventually escapes by laminar flow to next
scallop downstream to the right Repeat... Again and Again
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The cave is over 6 km. long...enter on left... Collapsed doline
-mini jungle one quarter mile below the surface
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Collapsed Doline Dolines are created when a cave system ceiling
collapses inwards allowing daylight to stream in and create new and
unique ecosystems. The chamber with the doline in the background is
nearly a half mile away from the person in the foreground -- see
person with light mile ahead
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The arch shape has generated extra stability not seen in many
caves
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Approaching the miniforest of the doline low light plant group
on edge
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This doline has captured a river, forming a disappearing
river
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Plants can adapt to new environments without a change of
species... Same tree species is deciduous in the cave but an
evergreen in the above jungle
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Cave pearls and scallops.... Water 3 mph wet season &
stationary in pools dry season
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The Great Wall... 250 high... ended the first expedition
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The second expedition managed to climb the wall... Oops cave
ended
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SE Asia has massive limestone + monsoons to create many cave
systems
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The Crystal Cave of Giants is on a fault deep under the
Chihuahua Desert of Mexico
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Crystal Cave of Giants a single small chamber the size of a
basketball court
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Naica Mine Chihuahua Desert Zinc Lead & Silver Big
Bend
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Fluorite Sphalerite Galena
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Wire Silver Fluorite & Sphalerite
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Cave of Crystals is in a limestone layer below the water
table... The groundwater table is normally located 400 feet below
the surface.... the cave is located nearly 2,500 feet below the
surface... Cave of Crystals Son Doong
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The Satellite ASTER image uses SWIR bands 4, 6, and 8 in RGB.
Limestone is displayed in yellow- green colors, vegetation is red.
Google Earth Image, elevation = 14 miles.
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The pumping system extracts 22,000 gallons of water per minute,
draining the mine shafts and caves You drive for a half hour down
underground roads to reach the caves & mining levels
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The mining operation in Naica requires of the extraction of
groundwater. The normal original water table level is -110 meters.
The main challenge is to maintain a complex pumping system in
constant operation, to be able to extract groundwater from the -850
meter level, where mining activity is currently taking place
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A small opening leads to the Queens Chamber Where the crystals
are the largest currently know... (35 feet)
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Crystal are a variety of gypsum called selenite... Soft glow of
the moon
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Although soft (can be scratched by a fingernail) they are
sharp!
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Temperature in excess of 125 o F + Humidity of 99%... Gives
heat index of nearly 200 o F A magma chamber is only a few miles
beneath the cave
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Any extended time (greater than 10 minutes)... requires
air-conditioned suites with ice-cooled air supply
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Core samples tested for isotopes reveal an age of 500,000
years
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Research result got published last year.... Crystal were
actively growing up until year 2000 when the pumping for the mining
emptied the chamber of slightly acidic waters... Thus no calcite
crystals
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Water flow through chamber less than 3 inches / day, no
turbulence... No nucleation
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Hydrothermal fluids off magma deposited sulfur-rich anhydrite
throughout fault zone, which was re-dissolved into waters of the
cave.
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Cave solutions stayed at 120 o F... In range of gypsum (CaSO 4.
2H 2 O) outside range of anhydrite (CaSO 4 )
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Researcher in suits could work for nearly an hour.... But
tourists in regular clothes could only be exposed for 10
minutes.... Closely timed in and out .
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New observation entrance New name (?)... Crystal Cave of Giants
Cave of Crystals
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Many people want to have a picture of themselves in this
setting
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New Tourist Industry ?
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Should this cave be preserved (?) Or Should pumping stop when
mining is done; cave would refill & crystal would start to grow
again
http://lfcdsscience8.edublogs.org/2010/11/25/the-naica-project-the-crystal-cave
/ The End ?
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Megacrystals in Naica, Mexico Juan Manuel Garca-RuizJuan Manuel
Garca-Ruiz, Roberto Villasuso, Carlos Ayora, Angels Canals and
Fermn OtloraRoberto VillasusoCarlos AyoraAngels CanalsFermn Otlora
Abstract Exploration in the Naica mine (Chihuahua, Mexico) recently
unveiled several caves containing giant, faceted, and transparent
single crystals of gypsum (CaSO 4 2H 2 O) as long as 11 m. These
large crystals form at very low supersaturation. The problem is to
explain how proper geochemical conditions can be sustained for a
long time without large fluctuations that would trigger substantial
nucleation. Fluid inclusion analyses show that the crystals grew
from low-salinity solutions at a temperature of 54 C, slightly
below the one at which the solubility of anhydrite equals that of
gypsum. Sulfur and oxygen isotopic compositions of gypsum crystals
are compatible with growth from solutions resulting from
dissolution of anhydrite previously precipitated during late
hydrothermal mineralization, suggesting that these megacrystals
formed by a self-feeding mechanism driven by a solution-mediated,
anhydrite-gypsum phase transition. Nucleation kinetics calculations
based on laboratory data show that this mechanism can account for
the formation of these giant crystals, yet only when operating
within the very narrow range of temperature identified by our fluid
inclusion study. These singular conditions create a mineral
wonderland, a site of scientific interest, and an extraordinary
phenomenon worthy of preservation