The Deadliest place on Earth? Surviving Cueva de los Cristales - The Giant Crystal Cave
January 8, 2010 5:35 AM Subscribe
The Deadliest place on Earth? Surviving Cueva de los Cristales - The Giant Crystal Cave It's 50C and has a humidity of 100%, less than a hundred people have been inside and it's so deadly that even with respirators and suits of ice [ed: whatever the hell they are] you can only survive for 20 minutes before your body starts to fail.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Yep, it's a neat cave. -- cortex
whatever the hell they are
Perhaps they are oversized jump suits stuffed with ice. Random thought.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:48 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
Perhaps they are oversized jump suits stuffed with ice. Random thought.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:48 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
50°C = 122°F in case other Americans were wondering.
posted by applemeat at 5:49 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by applemeat at 5:49 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
Wow.
Also as an aside it's interesting that we can create suits that will keep you warm in the vast infinity of deep space but haven't ever attempted to create a suit that will keep you cool for more than twenty minutes, and the one we have is a jumpsuit filled with ice.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:50 AM on January 8, 2010
Also as an aside it's interesting that we can create suits that will keep you warm in the vast infinity of deep space but haven't ever attempted to create a suit that will keep you cool for more than twenty minutes, and the one we have is a jumpsuit filled with ice.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:50 AM on January 8, 2010
More awesome cave crystal stuff in the Planet Earth series (I thought it was this same cave, but the one in the series is in New Mexico.
posted by jquinby at 5:55 AM on January 8, 2010
posted by jquinby at 5:55 AM on January 8, 2010
I think Lester's point was that it's pretty much been covered by the previous FPP.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:56 AM on January 8, 2010
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:56 AM on January 8, 2010
...it's interesting that we can create suits that will keep you warm in the vast infinity of deep space but haven't ever attempted to create a suit that will keep you cool for more than twenty minutes, and the one we have is a jumpsuit filled with ice.
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think with a little more investment a better suit could be made. A suit to keep you warm can run a long time on just preventing your body heat from escaping. But a suit to keep you *cool* has to force waste heat into the hotter surroundings, which means it has to be powered from the get-go. Basically, it would be a mobile refrigerator.
posted by DU at 5:57 AM on January 8, 2010
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think with a little more investment a better suit could be made. A suit to keep you warm can run a long time on just preventing your body heat from escaping. But a suit to keep you *cool* has to force waste heat into the hotter surroundings, which means it has to be powered from the get-go. Basically, it would be a mobile refrigerator.
posted by DU at 5:57 AM on January 8, 2010
I'm wondering why they don't make a suit like the old diving suits with a hose attached to it to circulate the air to keep the person in the suit cool. The cave is just an amazing find. One of those things you look at and think it's from a sci-fi film.
posted by inthe80s at 6:03 AM on January 8, 2010
posted by inthe80s at 6:03 AM on January 8, 2010
I am completely okay with three MeFi posts about this cave.
posted by sciurus at 6:08 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by sciurus at 6:08 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
Why does it look so incredibly photoshopped? Something about the aspect, and the lighting looks so wierd.
posted by molecicco at 6:09 AM on January 8, 2010
posted by molecicco at 6:09 AM on January 8, 2010
From the Nat Geo gallery:
"Cavers first don a vest containing ice packs, then an insulated jacket to slow melting. Finally, they pull on a full jumpsuit. Breathing packs worn like backpacks pump ice-cooled air to a respirator mask, allowing the wearer to be cooled from within."
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:10 AM on January 8, 2010
"Cavers first don a vest containing ice packs, then an insulated jacket to slow melting. Finally, they pull on a full jumpsuit. Breathing packs worn like backpacks pump ice-cooled air to a respirator mask, allowing the wearer to be cooled from within."
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:10 AM on January 8, 2010
...it's interesting that we can create suits that will keep you warm in the vast infinity of deep space but haven't ever attempted to create a suit that will keep you cool for more than twenty minutes, and the one we have is a jumpsuit filled with ice.
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think with a little more investment a better suit could be made.
Of course they have suits like this. The problem is that they don't want to use them in a cave whose beauty and wonder depends almost entirely on being hot and 1005 humidity, because that's the environment in which the crystals grow.
The problem is that humans generate their own heat, 98F to be precise. So to make a suit that keeps you warm only has to trap this heat, or at least slow its dissipation into the ambient environment.
But cooling you is a bigger problem, and you run right up against the laws of thermodynamics. We can construct things that make you cool, but they have to change the temperature and pressure of something else to make it work. Their could be a suit that simply sucks out the humidity, but then where does the water it collects go?
And more importantly, anything other than a suit of ice is going to be a machine, and that machine is going to generate heat in addition to the heat it removes from you, and that's going to change the temperature in the cave.
You could simply add antifreeze to the suit, to make it less cumbersome than a suit packed with hard ice, but then you run the risk of contaminating the cave with propylene glycol if the suit leaks.
So it isn't that they can't build an airconditioned suit. It's that they can't build one that won't have some effect on the cave's environment, thereby risking the natural crystal growing process that makes the cave interesting in the first place.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:13 AM on January 8, 2010
That's nothing, try living with your mother for the last 40 years!
-Dad
posted by Pollomacho at 6:17 AM on January 8, 2010
-Dad
posted by Pollomacho at 6:17 AM on January 8, 2010
Nice. I'm glad they took pictures because 120 degrees with 100% humility wouldn't agree with me. However imagine the weight you could drop in that place...
posted by Mastercheddaar at 6:37 AM on January 8, 2010
posted by Mastercheddaar at 6:37 AM on January 8, 2010
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posted by jonesor at 5:37 AM on January 8, 2010