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Science 14 March 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5613, pp. 1731 - 1735
DOI: 10.1126/science.1080444
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Reports
Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization
Gerald H. Haug,1*
Detlef Günther,2
Larry C. Peterson,3
Daniel M. Sigman,4
Konrad A. Hughen,5
Beat Aeschlimann2
In the anoxic Cariaco Basin of the southern Caribbean, the bulk
titanium content of undisturbed sediment reflects variations in
riverine input and the hydrological cycle over northern tropical South
America. A seasonally resolved record of titanium shows that the
collapse of Maya civilization in the Terminal Classic Period occurred
during an extended regional dry period, punctuated by more intense
multiyear droughts centered at approximately 810, 860, and 910 A.D.
These new data suggest that a century-scale decline in rainfall put a
general strain on resources in the region, which was then exacerbated
by abrupt drought events, contributing to the social stresses that led
to the Maya demise.
1 Department of Earth Sciences,
2 Department of Chemistry, ETH, CH-8092
Zürich, Switzerland.
3 Rosenstiel School of
Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33149, USA.
4 Department of Geosciences, Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
5 Department
of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
haug{at}gfz-potsdam.de.
Present address: Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam, D-14473
Potsdam, Germany.
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