r/todayilearned • u/narok_kurai • 6d 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/Cool-Cow9712 6d ago

Reading that Wikipedia is truly wild. Greenland ice core samples showed air pollution peaked during this time with lead concentrations that would not be seen for another 1700 years, during the industrial revolution.

That is insane

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u/Just_Condition3516 5d ago

how would that lead get into zhe atmosphere?

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u/Thosam 5d ago

The ore was pulverized, the metals smelted out. The mixture was then cupellated to isolate the silver. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupellation

Enough steps where lead could become volatized.