May Catastrophic Event Theory

In 2005, scholars presented a theory that exacerbated ill-advised deforestation; prolonged drought made the people of Mayan abandon it. This has been put to test with archaeological evidence and data on the environment. The catastrophic event theory focuses on more than one natural disaster such as volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and earthquakes as the cause of the fall of Mayan. Nevertheless, the insufficient archaeological evidence makes unfeasible that just a sole natural disaster would have a result in the collapse. Meanwhile, the many successive disasters where each had a less catastrophic proportion might in a way have led to the collapse (Santoso, 2007).
Another theory that explains the collapse of the Mayan city is the disease theory. The diseases that were widespread could present an explanation of rapid depopulation of the Classic
For one, around this period, severe reduction in rainfall went hand in hand with deforestation since most of the Mayan chopped and burned down more forest to pave the way for agriculture. More so, they needed more fuel to cook lime that was used in elaborate construction. From studies, experts argue that it would have taken at least twenty trees to present a sole square meter of the cityscape. Yucatan central lowland site for most cities was abandoned as a result of the stress of drought and deforestation. Since the cleared land absorbed less radiation from the sun, then there was less water that evaporated from the surface thus making the rainfall and cloud scarce. Consequently, deforestation exacerbated an already existing drought. Thus deforestation reduced precipitation by 15% thus being responsible for more than fifty percent of the drying land as many Mayan collapsed. Essentially, where there is no forest, depletion and erosion of soil is apparent. The combination of this factor was catastrophic since crops failed since the droughts occurred disproportionately