The Great Maya Droughts:

A GK-12 Activity Utilizing ODP Core 1002D

Jeri C. Rodgers NSF GK-12 Fellow, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

James Cano Earl Warren High School, San Antonio Texas

Kathy Ellins University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Our Villain:

Chac: God of Rain

“The Long-Lipped God”

Purpose of the Activity

• Targets 11th-12th graders in GMO (Geology, Meteorology and Oceanography) courses, as well as IPC (Integrated Physical and Chemistry)

• Teaches concepts which will help students attain GMO TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) objectives

• Utilizes current technology, which is unusual in present lessons available to secondary teachers

• Relates geophysical studies to an interesting historical mystery

• Acquaints students with Excel techniques• Teaches world history, culture, geography, and

mythology

Outline of Presentation

• Introduce the Maya area, history, and mystery of Maya city abandonment

• Introduce the Cariaco Basin Ocean Drilling Project and the assumptions made in using Core 1002D Ti data as a proxy for rainfall

• Introduce Lake Chichancanab core data as a CaC03/S proxy for rainfall

Maya Civilization: 2,000 BC to 950 AD

Pre-Classic Period: 800 BC until 250 AD•Two collapses: 280 AD and 380 AD

Classic Period from 250 AD to 950 AD•Major population decline between 67-93% of population lost and cities abandoned

Post-Classic Period from 950 AD to 1500s

•Maya history and area

Hodell, noaa website

Left: Yucatan Peninsula showing Maya Lowlands and points of interest. Right: Temple 1 at Tikal, the funerary pyramid of Hasaw Chan K’awil

Hodell, noaa website

Climate regions of the Maya region: SA = Semiarid, AW = Tropical Savanna, AM = Tropical

Monsoon, AF = Tropical Rainforest

The Cariaco Basin

Jaimes, 2003

Preliminary Data for the Activity

• Core 1002D-H taken by JOIDES Resolution 1995-1996 within the Cariaco Basin

• The basin is a silled, anoxic, pull-apart basin, which allows for deposition of undisturbed laminated sediments

• Workers measured concentration of titanium (Ti) vs. depth for 30 cm section of laminated sediment, with calibrations of laminations based upon C14 datesODP

database

Assumptions in Using Cariaco Basin Core 1002 Data

• Rainfall amounts were comparable in the Yucatan Peninsula and the Cariaco Basin

• Laminated core could be used as “tree rings” to measure climate and date those measurements

• The concentration of titanium (Ti) in sediment layers can serve as a proxy for rainfall amounts in the sedimentary layers

Correspondence of Yucatan and Cariaco Basin with Respect to the ITCZ

Haug et al., 2003

Anoxic basins allow preservation of laminations

because there is no bioturbation

Why Ti?

• Titanium (Ti) occurs in ilmenite and rutile – both forms of TiFeO3

• They are common in detrital sediment• Their weight means that they are washed off

the continent in relationship to river energy• They are non-reactive in water and

sediments• Note: The Asian tsunami of 2004 washed up

enough ilmenite in Thailand that they are considering mining it for titanium!

Figure 7. Muruwai Beach, North Island, New Zealand (11 January 2005.) Photograph by James Shook <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Muriwai_Beach_02.jpg>, accessed September 15, 2008. The black sand is a mixture of iron, titanium, vanadium and other materials volcanic in origin.

Excel spread sheet with data used for the activity.All charts are plotted from this data summary.

Lake Chichancanab

Hodell, noaa website

Correlative study by Hodell et al. (Nature, 1995) using %CaCO3 vs. %S as a rainfall

proxy

Products of this GK-12 Assignment

• Maya Activity• Power point with history and

mythology of the Maya• ASLO Oral Presentation (February

2005)• GSA-SC Workshop (April, 2005)

chaired by Joel Stevens

Whatever Happened To….?

Chak

He was replaced by:

Tlaloc – Toltec God of Rain

Acknowledgements and References

• Dr. Paul Mann and Marcy Davis of UTIG• ODP Researchers for providing core photos• GK-12 Workshop participants• Haug, Gerald H., Detlaf Gunther, Larry C. Peterson, Daniel M. Sigman,

Konrad A. Hughen, Geat Aeschlimann (2003) Climate and the collapse of Maya Civilization. Nature 299:1731-1735.

• Hodell, David A., Jason H. Curtis, and Mark Brenner (1995) Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375:391-394.

• Jaimes, Martha A. (2003) Paleogene to Recent tectonic and paleogeographic evolution of the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela

• David Hodell provided slides for educational use through http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/slides/slideset/12/12_196_cslide.html

• Data for ODP core obtained via ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/contributions_by_author/haug2001/cariaco_ti.txt