Mayan Civilization Declined and Ultimately Died Due to Long Droughts

New research centered on the world famous "Blue Hole" in Belize suggests the ancient Mayan civilization died out due to a massively long drought.

According to Live Science, researchers found minerals in the underwater cave that indicated a past drought that lasted for approximately 100 years, from 800 A.D. to 900 A.D. For the past several centuries, the Mayans were prospering on the Yucatan Peninsula, but their decline began in 700 A.D.

Two new studies have been published on the new scientific developments in the Mayan collapse, the Smithsonian reported, one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the other in Geophysical Research Letters.

A drought has been the leading theory behind the end of the Mayan civilization for many years and Belize was connected to the matter as recently as a 2012 study in the journal Science. The researchers suggested a monsoon system called intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) may have missed the Yucatan Peninsula during the Mayan decline.

The ITCZ is known to dump massive amounts of rain on tropical regions during the summer, so if it was thrown off somehow, the results would have been devastating. For the new research, Belize's Blue Hole was of the highest import.

"It's like a big bucket. It's a sediment trap," André Droxler, an Earth scientist at Rice University and co-author on one of the new studies, told Live Science. "When you have major droughts, you start to get famines and unrest."

Around 700 A.D., the Mayans apparently became embroiled in war and anarchy. But in the centuries before, the ancient peoples built breathtaking pyramids and other structures, while developing a writing system and a calendar.

From 900 A.D. on, the Mayans experienced a dramatic drop-off in tropical storms and even tried moving north, but to no avail.

"There's a tremendous amount of change going on in Guatemala," Robert Oglesby, of the University of Nebraska and a researcher on one of the new studies, told the Smithsonian. "They may be that much more vulnerable to a severe drought."