June, 2000
El Niņo (referred to as El Niņo Southern Oscillation or ENSO ) is a cyclic climatic event that occurs when the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific changes. The changing climatic conditions can cause ocean currents to reverse and trade wind patterns to alter. These changes can result in destructive flooding in some areas of the world and devastating droughts in others. First discovered by fishermen in the 1800s, this event has been occurred every two to seven years recently. Now there is evidence that the Earth has experienced such events as far back as the Ice Ages.
This article from Science Now explains how glacial varves (layers of glacial sediment) from New England lakes suggest that El Niņo have occurred as far back as 17,500 years ago.
Related Web Sites
El Niņo Rules!: A great read for students. Brought to you by the Why Files, this site gives a concise and entertaining explanation of some effects of this phenomena.
El Niņo and La Niņa Information: This web site from the National Weather Service of the San Francisco Bay Area has links to information about El Niņo and La Niņa. From this site you can view graphs of climate change, learn about the effects of the cycles, see predictions for the future, and much more.
USGS News and Information on El Niņo: Links to articles about how El Niņo and its effects on California.
NOAA El Niņo Page: This site gives an overview of the El Niņo phenomena, provides hints on how to recognize an El Niņo event, descriptions of the most recent El Niņo, and links to even more information on forcasts, observations, and research.
Tracking El Niņo: At this site by NOVA, you can discover what scientists are finding out about El Niņo and its effects on space and time. You can follow the tracking of El Niņo in the winter of 1988 from various locations around the world, learn the anatomy of the event, and its effects.
Related Classroom Activities
El Niņo: This is an on-line lesson where students learn more about El Nino by searching for information, analyzing graphs and maps, answering questions, and making predictions.
Varves: Dating Sedimentary Strata: This lesson gives students hands-on experience analyzing varves (annual layers of sediment deposits) to determine past climates.
News Archive
Earth Science News Archive: We are building an archive of these news features. Feel free to browse earlier articles and resources!