--- title: New Study Strengthens Claim That Mayans Perished Due to Drought description: The researchers analyzed sediments from Belize's famous underwater cave, the Blue Hole canonical: https://time.com/3650832/mayan-extinction-drought-belize-blue-hole/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-31T08:28:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:12:29.950Z article:section: History og:title: The Cause of the Mayan Decline og:description: A new study of Belize's Blue Hole says the answer is drought. og:url: https://time.com/3650832/mayan-extinction-drought-belize-blue-hole/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7d859ec01abe3d/698777b38e0601366c4597aa/510008985.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 510008985 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Cause of the Mayan Decline twitter:description: A new study of Belize's Blue Hole says the answer is drought. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7d859ec01abe3d/698777b38e0601366c4597aa/510008985.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Study of Belize's Blue Hole Finds That the Mayans Perished Due to Drought by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Dec 31, 2014 8:28 AM UTC  The Blue Hole, Lighthouse Reef, Belize The Blue Hole, Lighthouse Reef, BelizeMlenny—Getty Images by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Dec 31, 2014 8:28 AM UTC The ancient Mayan civilization, known for its monumental contributions to art, science, astronomy and architecture, was probably wiped off the earth by a [100-year drought](http://www.livescience.com/49255-drought-caused-maya-collapse.html). Although drought has been previously theorized as one of the causes of the Mesoamerican civilization’s decline, a new study of underwater sediments off the coast of Belize lends further credence to that argument. The study was conducted by a team led by André Droxler, an earth scientist at Rice University in Houston, who told Live Science that he analyzed data from multiple places in the former Mayan heartland. The researchers extracted minerals from Belize’s famous underwater cave known as the Blue Hole and the lagoons that surround it, and on analyzing them found evidence of a drought between A.D. 800 and A.D. 900 — a period that coincides with the Mayan decline. Droxler also found that in the two centuries leading up to A.D. 1000, there were only one or two tropical cyclones every two decades as opposed to the usual five or six. “When you have major droughts, you start to get famine and unrest,” he said. \[[_Live Science_](http://www.livescience.com/49255-drought-caused-maya-collapse.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3650832/mayan-extinction-drought-belize-blue-hole/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3650832/mayan-extinction-drought-belize-blue-hole/"},"headline":"A Study of Belize's Blue Hole Finds That the Mayans Perished Due to Drought","datePublished":"2014-12-31T08:28:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:12:29.950Z","description":"Famous underwater cave offers sedimentary evidence","url":"https://time.com/3650832/mayan-extinction-drought-belize-blue-hole/","keywords":["Environment","Drought","Extinction"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7d859ec01abe3d/698777b38e0601366c4597aa/510008985.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd7d859ec01abe3d/698777b38e0601366c4597aa/510008985.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"510008985","caption":"510008985","creditText":"Mlenny—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3650832/mayan-extinction-drought-belize-blue-hole/","name":"A Study of Belize's Blue Hole Finds That the Mayans Perished Due to Drought"}}]}] ```