A study by Nanjing University meteorologist Ke Ding and colleagues has found that warmer waters in the Pacific Ocean may have caused devastating floods to the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization around 3,000 years ago. The researchers used three different lines of evidence to connect the dots, including modern weather simulations, archaeological sites hundreds of miles from the Chinese coast, coastal sediments in Japan and South Korea that record the intensity of ancient typhoons, and Shang Dynasty divination texts. The findings suggest that the massive floods in Shang Dynasty China were caused by typhoons from hundreds of kilometers away. The scientists also noted that the number of sites on the Central Plain, home to the Shang Dynasty, decreased sharply around 3.800 years ago and again about 3,300 years ago, suggesting that this was due to population changes that indicated a society in crisis.