October 31 is the start of the three-day festival in the Yucatan, known as Hanal Pixán. Elsewhere in Mexico, the celebration is called Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). In the Yucatán, the holiday goes by its Mayan name, pronounced han-awl pish-aan. We’ll head to the Yucatán peninsula to learn some geology and celebrate the culture.
Sharon Lyon
Editor, GeoLifestyle
Geology of the Yucatán Peninsula
The northern and eastern portions of the Yucatán Peninsula are a flat-lying karst landscape.
Shallow water carbonates and evaporites of the upper Cretaceous Barton Creek formation underlie the transitional Cretaceous-Paleogene Albion Formation, a thin blanket of partially cemented air-fall material from the Chicxulub bolide impact.
Above the Albion is a succession of Eocene and Miocene/Pliocene carbonates and evaporites. Each unit was deposited during high stands of the Caribbean Sea, which periodically inundated portions of the peninsula. Along the coastline, Holocene sediments and reefs overlie upper Pleistocene beach and coral-reef limestones.
About that Big Bang: 66 million years ago, a 10–15 km-sized asteroid hit the Yucatán, setting off catastrophic tsunamis, wildfires, and a global cloud of soot and dust that blocked out the sun, preventing photosynthesis.
The deeply buried Chicxulub impact crater is located off the northern coast of the Yucatán peninsula. The crater is supported by evidence including the presence of impact melts, shocked quartz, and tektites. The crater is outlined by a gravity anomaly and has been mapped using radar tomography by Space Shutter Endeavor astronauts.
Near Chicxulub, groundwater flowing north through the limestone bedrock is deflected when it encounters the buried rim of the crater. This concentrated flow has dissolved the rock, producing a semi-circular Ring of Cenotes, which surrounds the impact crater.
Why it matters: The collision caused the Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event which extinguished 75 percent of species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and ammonites. It decimated others, such as mammals, sharks, birds, and turtles.
Celebrating Hanal Pixán
Hanal Pixán is a Mexican holiday with pre-Columbian origins celebrating deceased loved ones. Traditionally, Day of the Dead in the Yucatán has been a quieter affair than in the rest of Mexico, with local families honoring their ancestors at home; however, in recent years, the festival has started to take on a feel similar to those in the rest of the country.
Events include parades with colorful costumes, performances, musical presentations, dance shows, and street art.
Hanal Pixán means “food for the souls” which is the focus of the festival, offering deceased family members their favorite foods to welcome them back from the spirit world.
Altars are constructed to honor the dead. The altar’s 3 levels represent the 3 planes of existence: earth, the celestial plane/heaven, and the underworld. Photos of deceased family members, corn, candles, and marigolds are placed on top. A green wooden cross represents the ceiba tree, important in Maya cosmology. On the lowest level are nine offerings of food and drink, each representing one of the nine gods of the underworld.
Regional foods offered include corn tortillas, pib (slow-cooked pork), relleno negro, Xe’ek’, a fruit salad, and Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead). Sugar skulls are available to purchase in the market.
Learn more about celebrating Day of the Dead in the Yucatán here.
Must-Try Food: Pan de Muerto
My attempt at Pan de Muerto
Pan de Muerto is an orange-flavored sweet bread covered in sugar and decorated with a skull and crossbones made out of dough. This week, I attempted to bake the bread using this recipe. I’m not sure I accomplished the look, but it turned out to be pretty tasty!
Visit the Riviera Maya
Jess Kraft/ Shutterstock.com
Along the eastern coast of the Yucatán peninsula, south of Cancún, and extending beyond Tulum, is the Riviera Maya. The area is known for its snorkeling and scuba diving, on the Great Mayan Reef, off the beaches, and in cenotes and caverns. There are also fascinating archeological sites. When I visited, my trip was timed days before the arrival of a tropical depression. Before the deluge set in, I was able to:
Swim off the beach at Akumal. The sea life is abundant, including one very large moray eel that sent me scrambling for shore.
Visit the Maya ruins at Tulum, a pre-Columbian walled city, originally built as a fortress along steep ocean cliffs. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, Tulum was an important site for worship and a port to trade goods, including obsidian. The Temple of the Frescoes was used by the Maya to track solar movements.
Cenote Diving
Mo Zyber/Shutterstock.com
An estimated 10,000 sinkholes are present in the Yucatán. Locally known as cenotes, they formed from the dissolution and collapse of the limestone bedrock. The word “cenote” comes from the Yucatec Maya language, referring to any location with accessible groundwater. The Maya considered cenotes to be sacred portals to the underworld, and many were used as sites for rituals and offerings.
Today, many cenotes are protected, preserving the region’s biodiversity. Responsible diving is permitted in some areas.
My husband, geologist Bob Lyon (AECOM) went on a group scuba diving trip through the cavern system.
His comments: “If you are going on a dive in the caverns of the Yucatán, make sure you are an experienced diver. Be sure to ask about the width of the tunnels. At several points in the trip, the caverns were just wide enough for one diver at a time to fit through. The divers’ flippers kicked up the mud and silt so all I could see were the feet of the diver in front of me, which was a little scary. We popped out in the ocean, about a quarter mile from shore, which was cool. But next time, I’d ask more questions before attempting to dive.”
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