Fire and Ice underground

March 21, 2008 8:47 AM

Weird scenes inside the gold mica mines Russians photograph and play in an abandoned mine.
posted by Kirth Gerson (7 comments total)

Wow, those are really cool.
posted by tkolar at 8:52 AM on March 21, 2008

Really beautiful. Clicking out to the original set posted by the group who did the exploring really added to my appreciation.

Cave ecology shares a lot of visual similarity with the sea floor, delightfully.

Hurrah for the intrepid!
posted by batmonkey at 9:05 AM on March 21, 2008

She should go to Detroit.
posted by Mblue at 9:19 AM on March 21, 2008

In this case, it's mine ecology. Those are icicles and ice crystals, not stalactites and calcite. The mushrooms and fungus would also grow in a cave, but only on organic material brought in from outside, as the timbers in the mine were. (That does happen in caves that take flood water, or when bats die in a cave.)

You can see a pretty good selection of unusual cave formations at this site. Don't miss the snottites.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 10:09 AM on March 21, 2008

True, Kirth Gerson, true - it's definitely a mine.

The ponder was started by the crystalline forms, fungi, algae, and the way it subsumes foreign objects, so I can be even more stoked by the similarities between the three environments.
posted by batmonkey at 3:18 PM on March 21, 2008

amazing photos. great find.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 1:20 AM on March 22, 2008

Gorgeous. The bat photos are amazing.
posted by freya_lamb at 3:50 AM on March 24, 2008