Ruina montium, "wrecking of mountains", A Roman mining technique in which pressurized water was used to crack mountain walls.
Pliny's description: "The third method will have outdone the achievements of the Giants. By means of galleries driven for long distances the mountains are mined by the light of lamps—the spells of work are also measured by lamps, and the miners do not see daylight for many months.
The name for this class of mines is arrugiae; also cracks give way suddenly and crush the men who have been at work, so that it actually seems less venturesome to try to get pearls and purple-fishes out of the depth of the sea: so much more dangerous have we made the earth!"
"Las Médulas, the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire. The spectacular landscape resulted from the ruina montium mining technique"
More from Pliny:
"there is a kind of earth consisting of a sort of potter's clay mixed with gravel, called gangadict, which it is almost impossible to overcome. They attack it with iron wedges and the hammer-machines mentioned above; and it is thought to be the hardest thing that exists, except greed for gold"
"The fractured mountain falls asunder in a wide gap, with a crash which it is impossible for human imagination to conceive...The miners gaze as conquerors upon the collapse of Nature. And nevertheless even now there is no gold so far, nor did they positively know there was any when they began to dig; the mere hope of obtaining their coveted object was a sufficient inducement for encountering such great dangers and expenses."
"According to some accounts Asturia and Gallaecia and Lusitania produce in this way 20,000 pounds weight of gold a year, Asturia supplying the largest amount. Nor has there been in any other part of the world such a continuous production of gold for so many centuries. "
"Another equally laborious task involving even greater expense is the incidental operation of previously bringing streams along mountain-heights frequently a distance of 100 miles for the purpose of washing away the debris of this collapse... At the head of the waterfall on the brow of the mountains reservoirs are excavated measuring 200 feet each way and 10 feet deep. "
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