Steve Hardinger and Dragon Minerals. Retrieved from Mindat Photo of the Day

Everyone knows Kansas City’s water tastes really good, despite being “hard water.” Kansas City municipal water averages 100 ppm (CaCO₃ equivalent), which is classified as “moderately hard” by the Water Quality Association. But these people’s hard water would be off the charts!

A valve was stuck in a pipe somewhere in the Naica mining complex in Chihuahua, Mexico. “The valve was removed with the aid of a saw, and voila! the pipe was completely clogged with fine, colorless and gemmy gypsum crystals to 7 cm.”

No word on what they did with the crystals after they unclogged the pipe.

Sources: https://www.mindat.org/photo-773687.html

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/hardness.html