What happens in the ocean during an El Nino event?

Question

What happens in the ocean during an El Nino event?

Answer 1

El Nino happens when weakening trade winds (which sometimes even reverse direction) allow the warmer water from the western Pacific to flow toward the east. This flattens out the sea level, builds up warm surface water off the coast of South America, and increases the temperature of the water in the eastern Pacific.

Answer 2

The surface and near surface waters of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become warmer than average.  This in turn suppresses upwelling of nutrients which impacts marine life off the western coasts of South America by limiting the food supply.

Answer 3

Hahaha.. i was just being tolled about the El Nino thing..

sorry i forget though

ps. sorry for not answering your question

Answer 4

From Wikipedia:

El Niño and La Niña are officially defined as sustained sea surface temperature anomalies of magnitude greater than 0.5°C across the central tropical Pacific Ocean. When the condition is met for a period of less than five months, it is classified as El Niño or La Niña conditions; if the anomaly persists for five months or longer, it is classified as an El Niño or La Niña episode. Historically, it has occurred at irregular intervals of 2-7 years and has usually lasted one or two years.

The first signs of an El Niño are:

Rise in air pressure over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and Australia

Fall in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean

Trade winds in the south Pacific weaken or head east

Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the northern Peruvian deserts

Warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific. It takes the rain with it, causing extensive drought in the western Pacific and rainfall in the normally dry eastern Pacific.

El Niño's warm current of nutrient-poor tropical water, heated by its eastward passage in the Equatorial Current, replaces the cold, nutrient-rich surface water of the Humboldt Current, also known as the Peru Current, which support great populations of food fish. In most years the warming lasts only a few weeks or a month, after which the weather patterns return to normal and fishing improves. However, when El Niño conditions last for many months, more extensive ocean warming occurs and its economic impact to local fishing for an international market can be serious.

During non-El Niño conditions, the Walker circulation is seen at the surface as easterly trade winds which move water and air warmed by the sun towards the west. This also creates ocean upwelling off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador and brings nutrient-rich cold water to the surface, increasing fishing stocks. The western side of the equatorial Pacific is characterized by warm, wet low pressure weather as the collected moisture is dumped in the form of typhoons and thunderstorms. The ocean is some 60 cm higher in the western Pacific as the result of this motion.

In the Pacific, La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, compared to El Niño, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the same area. Atlantic tropical cyclone activity is generally enhanced during La Niña. The La Niña condition often follows the El Niño, especially when the latter is strong.

Answer 5

The ocean is hotter in a particular current.

Answer 6

okay well im not suer but la nina is the opposite. and what happens during one benifits ocean life and when the other one occurs it benifits the land life/animals

Answer 7

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