Volcanic process usually does one of two things: it takes life away, and gives life. Individuals are more knowledgeable about the latter theory, and there are lots of volcanic eruptions all over the world that have lived up to this standing. Vesuvius’s destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii is probably the most well known example, but lest we forget, whole cultures have been occasionally stopped by volcanoes: Santorini’s cataclysmic eruption wiped out the Minoans 3,650 years past.

New research summarized at the yearly assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna nails another culture-disturbing – if not ruining – volcanic eruption. Based on a variety of samples of volcanic ash that was historical, a vast lava dome in Mexico, a massive explosion at El Chichón, may have dropped the Central American Mayan culture into madness in the 6th century.

El Chichón is known to those in the area because of its 1982 eruption that was devastating.

This volcanic eruption’s destructiveness continued after the primary act had subsided way from simply fast have folks. 24,000 square kilometers (9,270 square miles) of the surrounding landscape experienced major ash side effect, which destroyed swaths of java, hot chocolate, and banana harvests.

Volcanic activity was proposed as a possible cause of the hiatus, but this unique team of researchers believe they’ve eventually found robust evidence.

When volcanoes erupt, they spurt out vast amounts of sulfur. Sulfur discovered as far as ice in the South and North Poles suggests that there was a rather enormous eruption someplace on Earth in the year 540, which occurs to indicate the very start of the Mayan hiatus.

Dating of volcanic ash found in Mexico affirms that place was taken by an eruption at El Chichón .

The amount of sulfur discovered in the ice cores indicates the eruption was strong enough to darken the skies and cause a little interval of abrupt cooling that is regional. The depth of the ash deposits that are Mexican additionally suggests that surrounding setting would happen to be coated in suffocating ashes.

Another study notes the polar sulfur signatures may be linked in Alaska, which happened in the year 536, possibly to another eruption.

Volcanic actions may happen to be to blame for the hiatus that was Mayan but the reasons for the culture’s greatest downfall stay debatable.