The Earth is an Alien Planet

2021-10-29 · explainer · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Personal essay

Formerly titled The Weirdest Way The Earth Can Kill You.

Hank tells how miners in Mexico found a cave of giant crystals so hot and humid that every breath would have condensed water in visitors' lungs, and argues, borrowing Katherine's line that the Earth is an alien planet, that our planet stays full of knowable unknowns worth exploring.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The Sanchez brothers' 2000 discovery of a cave of giant crystals in a pumped-out Mexican mine

★★ Hank says that in 2000 two brothers, Juan and Pedro Sanchez, were drilling in a lead and silver mine in Mexico where it was about 130 degrees Fahrenheit. — 00:00:00
★★ Hank says water is a constant hazard in mines, so mines almost always have huge pumps that remove it. — 00:00:14
★★★ Hank says that with the water pumped out, the brothers drilled into a giant cave full of some of the largest crystals ever discovered on Earth. — 00:00:29 · Earth
★★ Hank says the crystals can no longer be visited: the mine stopped pumping, so the cavern is full of water again. — 00:00:43

00:00:58 — Why scientists needed cooling suits and breathing gear: heat, humidity and condensation that would drown you

★★★ Hank says scientists in the cave needed cooling suits: at 130°F (55°C) and 90 to 99% humidity, sweat cannot evaporate, so a person would overheat and die. — 00:00:58
★★★ Hank says they also needed scuba-like air supplies, not because the air was poisonous, but because hot air holds a lot of water and cooled air holds less, so the water condenses out. — 00:01:27
★★ Hank says this is why rising water vapor condenses into clouds in colder upper air, and why a glass of iced tea collects water on its side. — 00:01:50
★★★ Hank says the inside of your lungs is cooler than that air, so without a tank every breath in the cave would condense more water in your lungs until you drowned. — 00:02:05
★ Hank says this happened to no one, because the scientists knew the danger and planned around it. — 00:02:20

00:02:33 — A narrow window to see the cave, Rome's buried sites, Katherine's 'alien planet' line, and making the unknown known; sign-off

★★ Hank says we kind of never should have seen the cave: there was a narrow slice of about five years to study the crystals, thanks to a bizarre series of coincidences. — 00:02:33
★★ Hank says Rome has spent 40 years trying to build a single subway line because every dig turns up irreplaceable archaeological sites; so much remains hidden from us. — 00:02:50
★★ Hank told Katherine about the crystal caves and on their walk home she exclaimed that the Earth is an alien planet, which he calls such a good line. — 00:03:03 · Katherine Green, Earth

“The Earth is an alien planet!”
★★★ Hank says nothing is less alien than the planet we evolved on, have barely left, and that sustains us every day. — 00:03:12 · Earth
★★★ Yet, Hank says, the Earth is alien: even after all our inquiry it remains full of the unknown and is inhospitable to us everywhere except a narrow slice at the surface. — 00:03:27 · Earth
★★★ Hank says these unknowns are knowable, and though it makes no philosophical sense, making them known, about avocados and megafauna or giant crystal caves, seems a very good use of time. — 00:03:37

In the description and comments

★ The description says Hank just thinks this is really cool, and a terrifying, memorable way to teach how evaporation and condensation work. — video description
★ In a comment John notes that three weeks earlier he said our lungs were made for this air, and Hank then made a video asking what 'this air' means. — creator comment

Threads in this video

restate · Is learning worthwhile for its own sake? — Hank says these unknowns are knowable, and though it makes no philosophical sense, making them known, about avocados and megafauna or giant crystal caves, seems a very good use of time. (00:03:37)

Mentioned

Central: Cave of the Crystals · condensation · Earth

Also: avocado · cloud · humidity · Katherine Green · Megafauna · Mexico · Rome

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