ENGLISH FOR SCIENCE

AND TECHNOLOGY
El Niño
 WHAT IS IT?

A warm current of water replaces the

usual cold current of water off the west
coast of Peru, South America.
Occur over a wider area covering the
central and eastern Pacific and has
linkage with the occurrence of some
major unusual weather conditions in
different parts of the world like severe
floods and prolonged droughts.
 ITS NAME…

It is defined The word “El

as unusually Niño” is
warm water come from
in the Pacific Spanish
ocean, language
occurring that means
near the The Little
beginning of Boy or Christ
 WHERE DOES IT FIRST START

Temperature fluctuates in
surface waters of the tropical
Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Countries involved: Indian
Ocean, Indonesia , Australia,
Tahiti , Pacific Ocean, Peru
 HISTORY OF THE PHENOMENON

It occur every 2-7 years , but most

of them are weak.
First El Niño event occurred pass
300 years:1790-1793
Recent El Niño event occurred:
September 2006- early 2007
The worst El Niño event occurred
in 1997-1998.
 EFFECTS OF EL NIÑO
 Rainfall across the east-central and eastern Pacific
Ocean had increased.
 Major flooding in Northern Peru and Ecuador caused
by warm and very wet summers.
 Central Chile receives a mild winter with large rainfall
 Unusual snowfall events in Peruvian-Bolivian
Altiplano
 Drier conditions occur in parts of Southeast Asia and
Northern Australia
 West of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Ross,
Bellingshausen, and Amundsen Sea sectors have
more sea ice
SOME PICTURES THAT SHOWED THE EFFECTS OF EL NIÑO :
Photograph courtesy of U.S
Geological Survey
El Niño drought captured at a dry
grassland in the Simi Hills west of
Rocketdyne
 HOW DOES IT OCCUR?
The normally cold water off the west coast of
South America becomes much warmer,
exceeding the normal temperatures by several
degrees, while the waters in the western Pacific
cool. These changes are accompanied by a
change in the surface atmospheric pressure
patterns. The relatively high pressure in the
eastern Pacific and the relatively low pressure
in the west are reversed. This periodic reversal
in the pressure pattern has been recognized for
many years and is called the Southern
Oscillation.
Normal Pacific pattern. Equatorial winds
gather warm water pool toward west.
Cold water upwells along South
El Niño Conditions. Warm water pool
approaches South American coast.
Absence of cold upwelling increases
 VIDEOS ON EL NIÑO
Details about El Niño :
Finishe
d…
Group
Member…
:
Jeverd
Singh
Yoon Wai
Yan
Chok
Weng Sze