A new study found evidence that a 100-year-long drought caused the fall of the Mayan civilization.
Researchers at Rice University searched for evidence at Belize's famous underwater cave, known as the Blue Hole, analyzing the minerals in the area to find that an extreme drought occurred between A.D. 800 and A.D. 900, the same time that the Mayan civilization started falling apart. Those who survived the drought moved to the north but encountered another drought a few centuries after the first one, according to Live Science.
Co-author Earth scientists André Droxler and his team drilled the cores of the Blue Hole of Lighthouse lagoon and Rhomboid reef to collect sediment samples. They examined the chemical composition of the cores and found traces of titanium and aluminum, two elements that suggest episodes of droughts.
The team also looked at the climate history in the area and found that there were only one or two cyclones per decade between A.D. 800 and A.D. 1000. The dates coincide with the start of the fall of the Mayan civilization.
"When you have major droughts, you start to get famines and unrest," Droxler told Live Science.
The Mayan civilization is one the best-known classical civilizations of Mesoamerica, originating in the Yucatan peninsula around 2600 B.C., which is now known as southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize, and western Honduras. The Mayans were famous for the development of astronomy, a calendar system, and hieroglyphic writing. It is still a mystery why their civilization was erased, but some scientists believe that it was caused by dry spells that led to deforestation and food shortage.
The study is not the first to link dry spells or long drought to the fall of the Mayan civilization, but it is the first to obtain evidences from different areas.
