The peninsula is approximately 181,000 km2 (70,000 sq mi) in area. It has low relief and is almost entirely composed of porouslimestone.[6][7]
The peninsula lies east of theIsthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest point in Mexico separating the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, from the Pacific Ocean. Some consider the isthmus to be thegeographic boundary betweenCentral America and the rest ofNorth America, placing the peninsula in Central America.[6] Politically, all of Mexico, including the Yucatán, is generally considered part of North America, while Guatemala and Belize are considered part of Central America.
The proper derivation of the wordYucatán is widely debated. 17th-century Franciscan historianDiego López de Cogolludo offers two theories in particular.[8] In the first one,Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, having first arrived to the peninsula in 1517, inquired the name of a certain settlement and the response inYucatec Mayan was "I don't understand", which sounded likeyucatán to the Spaniards.[note 1][9][8][10] There are many possibilities of what the natives could have actually said, among which "mathan cauyi athán", "tectecán", "ma'anaatik ka t'ann" and "ci u t'ann".[8][10][11] This origin story was first told byHernán Cortés inhis letters to Charles V.[12][13][14] Later 16th century historiansMotolinia andFrancisco López de Gómara also repeat this version.[14] In some versions the expedition is not the one captained by Córdoba but instead the one a year later captained byJuan de Grijalva.[15] The second major theory is that the name is in some way related to theyuca crop, as written byBernal Díaz del Castillo.[8][14] Others theories claim that it is a derivative ofChontal Tabascan wordyokat'an meaning speaker of theYoko ochoco language, or an incorrectNahuatl termyokatlan as supposedly "place of richness" (yohcāuh cannot be paired withtlán).[14]
Artistic impression of the asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatán Peninsula in what is todaySoutheast Mexico.[16] The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 66 million years ago, is believed to have caused themass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and many other species on Earth.[16] The impact spewed hundreds of billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, producing a worldwide blackout and freezing temperatures that persisted for at least a decade.[16]
The Yucatán Peninsula is the site of theChicxulub crater impact, which was created 66 million years ago[16] by an asteroid of about 10 to 15 kilometers (6 to 9 miles) in diameter at the end of theCretaceous Period.[17]
In 2020, an underwater archaeological expedition led by Jerónimo Avilés excavated Chan Hol cave, near the Tulum archaeological site in the state of Quintana Roo on the peninsula, and revealed the skeleton of a woman approximately 30 years of age who lived at least 9,900 years ago. According to craniometric measurements, the skull is believed to conform to themesocephalic pattern, like the other three skulls found inTulum caves. Three different scars on the skull of the woman showed that she was hit with something hard and her skull bones were broken. Her skull also had crater-like deformations and tissue deformities that appeared to be caused by a bacterial relative ofsyphilis.[18]
According to study lead researcher Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, "It really looks as if this woman had a very hard time and an extremely unhappy end of her life. Obviously, this is speculative, but given the traumas and the pathological deformations on her skull, it appears a likely scenario that she may have been expelled from her group and was killed in the cave, or was left in the cave to die there".[citation needed]
The newly discovered skeleton was 140 meters away from the Chan Hol 2 site. Although archaeologists assumed the divers had found the remains of the missing Chan Hol 2, the analysis soon proved that these assumptions were erroneous. Stinnesbeck compared the new bones to old photographs of Chan Hol 2 and showed that the two skeletons represent different individuals.[19]
Due to their distinctive features, study co-researcher Samuel Rennie suggest the existence of at least two morphologically diverse groups of people living separately inMexico during the transition fromPleistocene toHolocene.[20]
The Yucatán Peninsula constitutes a significant proportion of the ancient Maya lowlands and was the central location of the Maya Civilization. The Maya culture also extended south of the Yucatán Peninsula intoGuatemala,Honduras, and the highlands ofChiapas.[7] There are manyMaya archaeological sites throughout the peninsula; some of the better-known areChichen Itza,Coba,Tulum, andUxmal.[21]
In the 9th century, there was a widespreadpolitical collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in civil wars, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population.[22] The Postclassic period saw the rise ofChichen Itza in the north.
TheSpanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into theSpanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries.
With theCaste War of Yucatán, which started in the 1840s, all non-natives were driven from the region. The independent Mayan state ofChan Santa Cruz was conquered by the Mexican federal army in 1901.
IndigenousMaya andMestizos of partial Maya descent make up a sizable portion of the region's population, andMayan languages are widely spoken there.
Sediment off the Yucatán PeninsulaLocation of the "Ring of Cenotes" on the Yucatán Peninsula
The peninsula is the exposed portion of the largerYucatán Platform, all of which is composed ofcarbonate and soluble rocks, being mostlylimestone althoughdolomite andevaporites are also present at various depths. The whole of the Yucatán Peninsula is an unconfined flat lyingkarst landscape.[7] Sinkholes, known locally ascenotes, are widespread in the northern lowlands.
According to theAlvarez hypothesis, themass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs at the transition from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene Period, theCretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg boundary), 66 million years ago was caused by an asteroid impact somewhere in the greaterCaribbean Basin.[23] The deeply buriedChicxulub crater is centered off the north coast of the peninsula near the town ofChicxulub. The now-famous "Ring of Cenotes," a geologic structure composed ofsinkholes arranged in a semi-circle, outlines one of the shock-waves from this impact event in the approximately 66-million-year-old rock. The existence of the crater has been supported by evidence including the aforementioned "Ring of Cenotes", as well as the presence of impact debris such asshocked quartz andtektites, a type of glass formed duringmeteorite impacts.[24]
The peninsula has a tropical climate, which ranges from semi-arid in the northwest to humid in the south. Average annual rainfall ranges from less than 800 mm (30 inches) in the driest parts of the northwest up to 2,000 mm (80 inches) in thePetén Basin to the south. Rainfall varies seasonally, with August and September generally the wettest months.[26]
Like much of theCaribbean, the peninsula lies within the Atlantic Hurricane Belt, and with its almost uniformly flat terrain it is vulnerable to these large storms coming from the east, and the area has been devastated by many hurricanes, such asHurricane Gilbert,Hurricane Emily,Hurricane Wilma, andHurricane Dean.
Strong storms callednortes can quickly descend on the Yucatán Peninsula any time of year. Although these storms pummel the area with heavy rains and high winds, they tend to be short-lived, clearing after about an hour. The average percentage of days with rain per month ranges from a monthly low of 7% in April to a high of 25% in October. Breezes can have a cooling effect,humidity is generally high, particularly in the remaining rainforest areas.[27]
Due to the extremekarst nature of the whole peninsula, the northern half is devoid of aboveground rivers. Wherelakes andswamps are present, the water is marshy and generally unpotable. Due to its coastal location, the whole of the peninsula is underlain by an extensive contiguous density stratified coastalaquifer, where a fresh water lens formed frommeteoric water floats on top of intruding saline water from the coastal margins. The thousands of sinkholes known ascenotes throughout the region provide access to the groundwater system. The cenotes have long been relied on by ancient and contemporaryMaya people.[7][28]
The vegetation and plant communities of the peninsula vary from north to south. TheYucatán dry forests occupy the dry northwestern peninsula, and include dry forests and scrublands and cactus scrub. TheYucatán moist forests occur across the middle and east of the peninsula, and are characterized by semi-deciduous forests where 25 to 50% of the trees lose their leaves during the summer dry season. TheBelizian pine forests are found in several enclaves across central Belize. The southernmost portion of the peninsula is in thePetén–Veracruz moist forests ecoregion, an evergreen rain forest.[29]
In the late historic and early modern eras, the Yucatán Peninsula was largely a cattle ranching, logging,chicle andhenequen production area. Since the 1970s, the Yucatán Peninsula has reoriented its economy towards tourism, especially in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Aside from tourism, another source of income that is important in the Peninsula is logging as well as chicle industries specifically in Belize. Oil was also found in certain parts of the Yucatán, bringing in more economic opportunities.[32] Once a small fishing village,Cancún in the northeast of the peninsula has grown into a thriving city. TheRiviera Maya, which stretches along the east coast of the peninsula betweenCancún andTulum, houses over 50,000 beds. The best-known locations are the former fishing town ofPlaya del Carmen, the ecological parksXcaret andXel-Há and the Maya ruins ofTulum andCoba.
The population of the Yucatán Peninsula is very different throughout each part of the Peninsula. Population density and ethnic composition are two factors that play into the total population. The most populated area isMérida in Yucatán state and the surrounding region, contrasted by the state of Quintana Roo, the least populated part of the peninsula. In terms of ethnic composition, a majority of the population consisted of both Maya and Mestizos.[32]
^abMcColl, R. W. (2005).Encyclopedia of World Geography. New York: Facts On File. pp. 1002–1003.ISBN0-8160-5786-9.
^abcdScheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980).Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. p. 420.ISBN0-89577-087-3.
^Castaneda, Quetzil (1 August 2002). "Post/Colonial Toponymy: Writing Forward 'in Reverse'".Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies Travesia.11 (2):119–134.doi:10.1080/1356932022000004166.S2CID161263168.
^Renne, P. R.; Deino, A. L.; Hilgen, F. J.; Kuiper, K. F.; Mark, D. F.; Mitchell, W. S.; Morgan, L. E.; Mundil, R.; Smit, J. (2013). "Time Scales of Critical Events Around the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary".Science.339 (6120):684–687.Bibcode:2013Sci...339..684R.doi:10.1126/science.1230492.PMID23393261.S2CID6112274.
^Torrescano-Valle, Nuria, et al. (2015). "Physical Settings, Environmental History with an Outlook on Global Change." In Islebe, Gerald Alexander, Sophie Calmé, et al. (eds.)Biodiversity and Conservation of the Yucatán Peninsula. Springer International Publishing, 2015.ISBN978-3-319-06529-8.
^Heilprin, Angelo (1891). "Observations on the Flora of Northern Yucatan".Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.29 (136):137–144.JSTOR982931.
Juan Luis Pena Chapa, Manuel Martin Castillo, and Juan Carlos Gonzalez Avila,The Performance of the Economy of the Yucatan Peninsula from 1970–1993Wayback Machine
Marcio L. Teixeira,The Impact of the Geologic History of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Present Day Aquifer,2004[1]
Angelo Heilprin,Observations on the Flora of Northern Yucatan[2]
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