The Real Fortress Of Solitude

6:28 pm EST August 3rd, 2007 | News | 3 Comments

Crystalcave1

If Superman had installed that giant key, none of this intrusion would have happened.

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 36 feet (11 meters).

How did the crystals reach such superheroic proportions?

In the new issue of the journal Geology, García-Ruiz reports that for millennia the crystals thrived in the cave’s extremely rare and stable natural environment. Temperatures hovered consistently around a steamy 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), and the cave was filled with mineral-rich water that drove the crystals’ growth.

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3 Responses to “The Real Fortress Of Solitude”

  1. Zython says:
    August 3, 2007 at 11:13 pm

    If Superman had installed that giant key, none of this intrusion would have happened.

    Here’s the problem with Superman’s security system, and the one which Batman exploited. What does a giant key require in order for it to work? A giant keyhole, of course. And with a keyhole of that size, one could simply walk through it to the other side of the door.

  2. 25%ER® says:
    August 3, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    These are obviously Photoshopped pictures by a bunch of God hating Libruls.
    Libruls really go to extremes to back up their phony premise that the Earth is older than 6,000 years.
    Libruls!

  3. 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera says:
    August 4, 2007 at 12:08 pm

    This is not a Hollywood set or CGI!

    These photos come courtesy of National Geographic (via ODub), where you can find the story of the discovery of the Cueva de los Cristales in Chihuahua, Mexico. Mexico’s Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains some of the world’s…