Geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz calls it "the Sistine Chapel of crystals," but Superman could call it home. A sort of south-of-the-border Fortress of Solitude, Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains some of the world's largest known natural crystals - translucent beams of gypsum as long as 11 metres.
With lengths over 11m, the giant gypsum crystals found in Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales are a great natural wonder. Now, a Spanish-Mexican team thinks it can explain how these marvels acquired their immense form. The scientists studied tiny pockets of fluid trapped in the crystals and conducted back-up lab experiments. They report in the journal Geology that the solution from which the crystals grew must have been kept in a very narrow, stable temperature range. The 120m-deep Cueva de las Espadas (Cave of Swords), discovered in 1912, is named for its metre-long shafts of gypsum (a calcium sulphate mineral that incorporates water molecules into its chemical formula).