[X] My Assistant

[CosmicRocker]

I finally found my old caving files. Among them were two pictures of myself in caves, a stash of GSA publications, and even a reprint I bought titled "Caves of Missouri," by J. Harlan Bretz himself! The price stamped on the front cover was 25 cents. I forgot that he and I had other common interests, beyond the ancient Catastrophist vs. Uniformitarian debate.

What a blast from the past. I was an undergraduate chemistry major back in those days, and I discovered that I was more interested in rocks than theoretical chemistry. I dropped out of that curriculum and enrolled in geology without looking back.

[edstrick]

It was so wonderful that Harlan Bretz lived to see himself vindicated beyond all imaginability when they held field trips to the Channeled Scablands as catastrophic flood channels to compare with Mariner 9 and Viking orbiter imagery.

[Bill Harris]

>Moving it or part of it as they did Abu Simbel would be incredibly expensive...

True, but with enough money... But I'm sure that major harvesting will happen, and without the complaint of 'ruining the natural setting'. It would be interesting to imagine the caverns we _haven't_ found.

Retirement is OK, but I'm working harder than I have over the past 20 years. I'm needing to slow down: last Spring I fell and tore my rotator cuff (shoulder). Last month I found that I have a heart rhythm problem and spent a week in ICU. Not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, yet, but I'm better.

You'll enjoy "graduation from work" (I hate the R-word).

--Bill

[MouseOnMars]

That very interesting edstrick,

I'm glad I started gracing this establishment, as as have been trying to formulate my own overview of Earth/Mars geology on a rather shaky basis.

I initially mistook Bretz for the "glaciers as catastrophic floods" theory that erroneously saw out of place boulders as shifted by water, when of course it was frozen water that did it. It's wonderful to find him rather than the avalanche of "crackpot" theories I seem to have been listening to ( ).

Vallis Marineris is nearby some of the largest volcanoes in the solar system, and on a planet that used to have huge amounts of water, so I'm beginning to see a picture, as they say.

Amazing what a cave can do !

mouseonmars

[CosmicRocker]

Bill: Ouch! That's a muscle that seems to respond slowly and painfully to rehab. I'm glad to hear that you recommend "graduation," but I note your comment regarding work in the post-work environment. I hope things are now going well for you.

Ed: I would have loved to tag along on one of those field trips. I can imagine that Bretz might have enjoyed noting his influence on the emerging planetary sciences.

[CosmicRocker]

I wouldn't have revived this old topic except for the fact that a friend sent me a file with about 50 or so pictures of these crystals that I hadn't seen before. This place is just so darn incredible that I thought at least a few people would like to see more pictures from this cavern. I found a directory on a CSM server from which you can download either a pdf or a ppt presentation containing a lot of pictures of the huge crystals from the Naica mine.

There are comments contained in that presentation suggesting there are/were plans to refrigerate the space and make it accessible to tourists. I haven't been able to find any other convincing evidence that it is actually happening. I may just have to drive down there after I retire/graduate and try to meet some people who have connections.

[MouseOnMars]

There are comments contained in that presentation suggesting there are/were plans to refrigerate the space and make it accessible to tourists. I haven't been able to find any other convincing evidence that it is actually happening. I may just have to drive down there after I retire/graduate and try to meet some people who have connections.

One of Scientists (at least I think he's a Scientist, he must be trained in Geology) has an agreement with the mining company. He must be doing research in how best to preserve the cave. You can see his comment about this on his flickr site.

Serendpitously I stayed in Chihuahua (the nearest big town to the mine) in 1993. I was just about to add Chihuahua as the next place in my Google maps journey, when I found the map in your link confirming where the cave is .

MouseOnMars

[jasedm]

I know I'm an inveterate reviver of old threads, so apologies, but I wondered if there was any news on how/if these crystals were preserved, or re-submerged. I can't find anything after 2007 on the net. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[ElkGroveDan]

Reviving this discussion to draw attention to the upcoming National Geographic special on these caves, October 12th.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/epis...e-3569/Overview

[CosmicRocker]

Thank you, thank you, Dan. That's now an event on my Google calendar and in Outlook with multiple reminders.

This should be a very good show. I see they are producing it with the La Venta exploration people, who, I think, provided some of the web pages previously linked to in this thread.

[CosmicRocker]

This is just a reminder for those of you who wanted to see more from this hole in the earth. The National Geographic program is scheduled to appear tomorrow, on October 12th. Additional information is available on that page...

Oh yes, thanks jasedm and EGD for reviving this thread.