In April 2000, brothers Eloy and Javier Delgado found what experts believe are the world’s largest crystals while blasting a new tunnel 1,000 feet down in the silver and lead Naica Mine of southern Chihuahua. Forty-year-old Eloy climbed through a small opening into a 30- by 60-foot cavern choked with immense crystals. "It was beautiful, like light reflecting off a broken mirror," he says.
He said that the sight was beautiful “…like light reflecting off a broken mirror”. The translucent crystals lie pitched atop one another, as though moonbeams suddenly took on weight and substance. One month later, another team of Naica miners found an even larger cavern adjacent to the first one.
As a professional photographer who specializes in environmentally difficult, narrow and wet canyons worldwide, it was almost impossible to obtain clear photographs even using every trick and technique I know, because of the extreme ambient environment. These crystals are probably stable, as the temperature in the cave is over 150 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity. In other words, these structures are enveloped in steam.
