Inside the world's largest crystal 'cave' – BBC REEL

But wait...

This is NOT another post about Naica's crystal cave in Mexico. I've already posted a few of those.

This post is about the Pulpí Geode, supposedly the world's largest geode, found near the town of Pulpí, Spain.

The crystals are - like those in Naica's cave - gypsum, and they're admittedly not as large as those in Naica's cave. In the above video, they refer to the Naica crystals as being up to 15m in length and those in the Pulpí Geode as being up to 2m in length. In the video, however, they state - without much explanation - that the Pulpí Geode is a geode - a cavity in rock completely covered with crystals - and the Naica cave as not a geode. 

I don't know if that means the Naica cave just has some un-covered surfaces or what, but the video above doesn't go into that detail, admittedly.

But this cave is available for people to walk through - for now, anyway - whereas Naica is flooded again. You just need to get to Pulpí.

Check out more about the Pulpí Geode...

• Spain's crystal cave, the giant gypsum geode of Pulpí
• These human-sized crystals formed in especially strange ways (requires registration - but you can use a made-up email address as of 8/14/22)
• The world's largest crystal cave

Naica - Return to the Giant Crystal Cave

The famous crystal cave of Naica was first discovered in 2000, and scientists have been trying to study the massive gypsum crystals found there ever since.

National Geographic originally produced a program Deadly Crystal Cave and has now produced a follow-up program titled Return to the Giant Crystal Cave (seen above).

In this version, a mostly new team of scientists continues exploring the cave, finding ways to spend longer times in the cave while exploring to greater depths and testing some of the theories that the first team of scientists developed. There is also a team of spelunkers checking out a possible new cave found off of a newly-drilled air shaft into the mine.

We again get told that the main crystal cave will be allowed to refill and the crystals to begin growing again but without any specifics as to when that might happen.

Cave of Crystals | 100 Wonders | Atlas Obscura

Yes, there is are a couple of hour-long videos about Naica cave, but sometimes we just don't have an hour to devote to that world's largest monocrystaline growths.

That's kind of why a video like this one - just under 3 minutes long - can be nice. It's a quick exploration of the Naica crystal cave, drained and being explored as of the time of these photos (no video, just stills).

I'd been hearing for a while that the caves 'were going to be refilled', but I just found - in a quick research bit - that the BBC reported in 2014...

In her discussion with reporters [Dr Penelope Boston] lamented the fact that the crystal complex had become flooded following the recent cessation of mining activities, preventing any further access. 

"It is tear inducingly beautiful down there. I wrote several poems about it actually.

Deadly Crystal Cave

1000 feet below Naica, Mexico is a lead, zinc, and silver mine in which scientists have found a cavern filled with some of the largest gypsum crystals anyone has ever seen. Uncomfortably, however, the cave is also filled with air up to 136 F and humidity above ninety percent making exploration more than a little hazardous. Luckily, the National Geographic explorers documented the cave before it was supposedly refilled to allow the crystals to remain undamaged and possibly continue growing even larger.