Jan. 25 — Scientific sleuths are reconstructing the ancient history of the troublesome El Niño weather pattern from slices of Pacific coral reef, and they say the past century’s back-and-forth swings have been the most intense in 130,000 years. Is this due to global warming? The results can’t prove such a linkage — but they don’t rule it out either, the researchers say.
THE EL NIÑO cycle is one of the globe’s most widely known and most disruptive fluctuations in weather, determined by the dynamics of air and sea in the Pacific. When sea surface temperatures are high, the El Niño pattern means warmer winters and more flooding for America’s West Coast and Southeast. La Niña is the flip side: colder sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, colder winters and more potential for drought in the United States.
Centuries ago, an El Niño occurred every two to 15 years, but recent research shows that the pattern has become more frequent and severe. El Niño was blamed for causing much of the $89 billion in weather-related damage in 1998.
The new research, published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, makes a connection between the weather patterns and large-scale changes in climate, based on an analysis of coral reef samples taken from uplifted coral reef terraces on the Huon Peninsula of New Guinea. During ice ages, the El Niño pattern appears to have been only about half as strong as it is today.
“We didn’t see any time slices that had greater intensity of El Niño than the past century, and most of the time we didn’t see them even being close to the past century,” said David Lea, a paleoceanographer at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a co-author of the Science paper.
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THE EL NIÑO cycle is one of the globe’s most widely known and most disruptive fluctuations in weather, determined by the dynamics of air and sea in the Pacific. When sea surface temperatures are high, the El Niño pattern means warmer winters and more flooding for America’s West Coast and Southeast. La Niña is the flip side: colder sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, colder winters and more potential for drought in the United States.
Centuries ago, an El Niño occurred every two to 15 years, but recent research shows that the pattern has become more frequent and severe. El Niño was blamed for causing much of the $89 billion in weather-related damage in 1998.
The new research, published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, makes a connection between the weather patterns and large-scale changes in climate, based on an analysis of coral reef samples taken from uplifted coral reef terraces on the Huon Peninsula of New Guinea. During ice ages, the El Niño pattern appears to have been only about half as strong as it is today.
“We didn’t see any time slices that had greater intensity of El Niño than the past century, and most of the time we didn’t see them even being close to the past century,” said David Lea, a paleoceanographer at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a co-author of the Science paper.
Want to learn MORE?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/521605.asp
------------------
"I'd like an order of fries, a quarter pounder with cheese, I love the light in your eyes, would you go out with me please? I am in love with a McDonald's Girl, she has a smile of innocence so tender and warm, she is an angel in a polyester uniform."