EL NIÑO/SOUTHERN OSCILLATION (ENSO)

(Oceanography and Meteorology) The expansion of warm waters in the Pacific Warm Pool east across the International Date Line, sometimes all the way to the coast of Peru, at which time it is called an El Niño event. The Pacific Warm Pool, located north and east of New Guinea, is approximately the size of the United States and gets its name from the fact that surface temperatures never go below 86°F (30°C). When this body of water expands, as it did in the early 1980s, the consequences of a warming trend on the coast of South America are dire. Typically, the fishing industry collapses in Peru as the plankton die off and fish head for cooler waters and torrential rainfalls bring devastating floods.