When you use SQL to drop a materialized view, the system removes the view definition, the materialized table that contains the materialized records, and frees the disk storage that is allocated to the table.
MYDB.SCHEMA(USER)=> DROP VIEW customers_mview;
If you drop the base table from which a materialized view is derived, the system drops the materialized table, but retains the view definition, which reverts to a regular view. All subsequent accesses to the SPM view result in an error message.