New findings offer explanation as to why Mayans abandoned their cities: [sciencealert.com]
The contaminated water sources idea makes a whole lot of sense since still or stagnated water aids theses algal blooms immensely and it seems that the Mayans relied mostly on rainfall to keep these 'reservoirs' topped up, so to speak.
Without a constant in-flow of fresh water from feed streams, rivers and such the waters would soon become contaminated, have massive algal blooms and the run-off from the city, etc, would have contained numerous toxic elements such a mercury, etc, dissolved in the run-offs, collecting, remaining and increasing exponentially over time.
A somewhat poignant example is what occurred in the Darling River, N.S.W. Australia just recently where a Blue Green Algal Bloom in the very still and stagnant waters ( caused by a complete lack of fresh water flows for well 2 years) there caused the deaths of millions of fish species, I saw, first-hand, what it was like, the water was very much like a foul, stinking version of Green Pea Soup for as far as the eye could see both up-stream and down-stream.
Posted by JoeBKite-like structures in the western Sahara Desert.
Posted by TriphidAn Aussie Indigenous Message Stick.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by JoeBDortoka vremiri: A new species of Dortokid Turtle from the Late Cretaceous of the Hațeg Basin, Romania.
Posted by JoeBThe Cabeço da Amoreira burial: An Early Modern Era West African buried in a Mesolithic shell midden in Portugal.
Posted by JoeBMusivavis amabilis: A new species of Enantiornithine Bird from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of northeastern China.
Posted by JoeBTorosaurus in Canada.
Posted by JoeBStone tools from the Borselan Rock Shelter, in the Binalud Mountains of northeastern Iran.
Posted by JoeBDating the Lantian Biota.
Posted by JoeBBashanosaurus primitivus: A new species of Stegosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Chongqing Municipality, China.
Posted by JoeBDetermining the time of year when the Chicxulub Impactor fell.
Posted by JoeBSão Tomé and Príncipe: Possibly the last country on Earth never to have been visited by a working archaeologist.
Posted by JoeBMambawakale ruhuhu: A new species of Pseudosuchian Archosaur from the Middle Triassic Manda Beds of Tanzania.