Fracking in the Roman Empire
Metulae (Hispania), c. 26. Emperor Octavio Augusto needed money to fund the campaign he was conducting against the tribes of the northern Iberian Peninsula and ordered the mining area to be exploited as effectively as possible in the present province of León. To do so, they would use the method of plummeting ruin montium, much faster than the traditional mining system.
Once the mine was located, several holes and tunnels were excavated and, deviating the course of the rivers, violent flows were poured through those deposits. The air in the streak net, compressed, burst. This caused the land to sink rapidly, and so precious metals were exposed and much more accessible. With this system, the Romans extract 1,500 tons of gold in the Las Médulas area in Spanish.
The influence of the Ruina montium method on the environment did not concern the ancient Romans, and in addition, the earthquakes produced by this mining technique were not directly linked to the activity, for which seismic activity was a divine phenomenon. However, the damage was by no means the same as that produced by the current fracking. Despite digging a larger number of holes, they had a much smaller depth. And through the holes, they would pour no more than water, that is, they would not pour toxic chemicals and, therefore, they would not contaminate aquifers.
It cannot be denied that aesthetically the result of the activity was a unique and singular landscape; in 1997 UNESCO declared The World Heritage Sites. However, the beautiful landscape was not only sculpted by the sacrifice of nature, but thousands of slaves died in the mine. Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79) The temerity of the method he collected in volume 33 of Naturalis History: “It’s more dangerous to extract gold from these lands than to search for pearls and purple at the bottom of the sea.”
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