Mayan_Collapse_Natural

At the same time, several successive natural disasters, each of less than catastrophic proportions, might have caused the collapse. The disease theory is also a contender for explaining the Mayan collapse. Widespread disease could explain the rapid depopulation of the classic Maya civilization and the lack of recovery over the long run. But the difficulty of getting archeological evidence makes this theory not universally accepted.At this time, rapid climate change and severe drought is considered as the likely cause of the Classic collapse, based on the evidence of the Lake Chichancanab, which will be introduced later. There is archaeological evidence of warfare, famine, and revolt against the elite at various central lowlands sites. There is also conclusive geological evidence, found in shells recovered from Lake Chichancanab (in modern Quintana Roo state in Mexico) by a team from the University of Florida, showing that the area suffered the worst drought in 7,000 years in the 9th century. This meteorological event is apparently connected to that of northern Europe, which suffered extremely low temperatures around the same time (the same connection between drought in the Maya areas and extreme cold in northern Europe was found again at the beginning of the 20th century). This evidence seems to support Dick Gill's theory that an unusually severe drought leading to a catastrophic decimation of the population was the driving force behind the collapse of Maya civilization [1]. However, there is no single cause universally accepted for their decline.