Northeast Yucatan hurricane activity during the Maya Classic and Postclassic periods.

ABSTRACT: The collapse of the Maya civilization in the late 1st/early 2nd millennium CE has been attributed to multiple internal and external causes including overpopulation, increased warfare, and environmental deterioration. Yet the role hurricanes may have played in the fracturing of Maya socio-political networks, site abandonment, and cultural reconfiguration remains unexplored. Here we present a 2200 yearlong hurricane record developed from sediment recovered from a flooded cenote on the northeastern Yucatan peninsula. The sediment archive contains fine grain autogenic carbonate interspersed with anomalous deposits of coarse carbonate material that we interpret as evidence of local hurricane activity. This interpretation is supported by the correlation between the multi-decadal distribution of

SUBMITTER: Sullivan RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9684114 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature