Climate change is considered one of the reasons for the collapse of ancient cities in Central America.

A study from the University of California Berkeley provides evidence connected to what could be the reason behind the abandonment of a city named Cantona between the A.D. 900 and A.D. 1050.

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"We found that Cantona's population grew in the initial phases of the drought, but by 1050 AD long-term environmental stress (the drought) contributed to the city's abandonment," said Lawrence Livermore researcher Susan Zimmerman.

"Our research highlights the interplay of environmental and political factors in past human responses to climate change," Zimmerman added.

In conducting the research and gathering evidences, UC Berkeley geographers assessed and thoroughly analyzed sediment cores discovered in a lake. Radiocarbon dated the evidence from between 500 A.D. and 1150 A.D..

It's believed Cantona was one of the largest cities in the New World because it had almost 90,000 inhabitants, but the population decreased because of climate change. Cantona is located in a dry and volcanic basin currently known as La Cuenca Oriental east of Mexico City.

Tripti Bhattacharya, the lead author of the study and a UC Berkeley graduate student, says climate change played a major role in ending the existence of the city and the decline of Cantona occurred during the dry interval.

Tags mexican city, cantona, Teotihuacan, Mayan, Yucatan Maya, drought