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Severe drought in the U.S. Southwest in the late 1200s likely contributed to the abandonment of Mesa Verde (marked with open circle) by the Ancestral Pueblo people. Drought maps for the years 1275-1290 reconstructed from tree ring records show that over the 16-year span from 1275-1290, only two wet years occurred. Graphic by Climate.gov, based on summer drought reconstructions from the Living Blended Drought Atlas, courtesy of NOAA and Cook et al., 2010, Journal of Quaternary Science, 25(1), 48-61. doi: 10.1002/jqs.1303.