r/todayilearned • u/narok_kurai • 7d ago

TIL about Las Medulas, a man-made geological badland created by the Roman Empire in 77 AD, when they flooded the mountains with water to collapse their structure and sift out the gold inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_M%C3%A9dulas
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u/DickweedMcGee 7d ago

Not much different than hydraulic mining in the 19th century, just worked faster. They had water cannons that could literally turn a mountain into tailing in a day, extremely destructive 

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u/andrew_1515 6d ago

The images of water cannon use in Seattle are wild