Sediment cores taken last year from the bottom of a lake on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula indicate that a series of extended droughts coincided with major cultural upheavals among the Maya inhabitants of the area.
The sediments taken from Lake Chichancanab record climate change in the northern Yucatan for the past 2,500 years, says David A. Hodell, a geologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Layers that show higher deposition of minerals indicate times of increased evaporation from the lake.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.