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Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico
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Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico (963,064 bytes) ( 1,605 x 2,700 ) |
The Naica mine in Chihuahua, Mexico, with its enormous gypsum crystals, may well be called the ÔÇ£Queen of the Giant Crystals localitiesÔÇØ. Though the Naica mine is no show mine, but still a working lead-zinc mine hosted in layered limestones, the first of several crystal caves was discovered in 1910. This ÔÇ£Cave of the SwordsÔÇØ contained extraordinary large sword-like selenite (gypsum) crystals up to 2 m long. In 2000 another crystal cave system was discovered at 300 m depth, even more spectacular than the original cave. Inside were free growing gypsum crystals up to 12 m long and 2 m in diameter. The ASTER image uses SWIR bands 4, 6, and 8 in RGB. Limestone is displayed in yellow-green colors, vegetation is red. The image was acquired February 16, 2004, covers an area of 26 x 23.5 km, and is located near 27.8 degrees north latitude, 105.5 degrees west longitude. The photo of crystals was taken from: http://www.thatcrystalsite.com.
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Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico
Type: (JPG)
Size: (963,064 bytes)
Resolution ( 1,605 x 2,700 ) |
Please give credit for these images to:
NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems,
and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
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