GAIA
El Niño trumps Climate Change
The Globe and Mail,
November 19, 2016, A8-A9 published a two page spread with close up photos of the devastation
and death of 80% of the coral in the
massive reef on Kiritimasti (Christmas
Isand) -- located in the dead centre of the Pacific Ocean.
Studied for years by researchers from the University of Victoria
and others, the current devastation is blamed by the scientists on – are you
ready for this – the super El Niño of 2015-16 of which I have written
previously.
The killing off and bleaching of most of this massive coral atoll has been blamed squarely on "heat stress", as water temperatures rose by 2.5*C, and
excessive rainfall: all due to El Niño.
While the decline of the reef in also attributed in part to climate
change, the researchers have been able to take samples and found El Niño’s rhythmic
dips and surges are the primary cause of coral reef devastation, and subsequent gradual
regrowth -- and it has affected the area for 7,000 years.
So El Niño is no new phenomenon though ignored until the 20th
century outside of the fisherman and villagers of South America’s upper west
coast which is its centre and source.
Supposedly, El Niño is the result of weaker Easterly Trade Winds
allowing the sun heated Equatorial zone to stay warmer. Its twin opposite, La Nina is considered the result of extra strong Easterly winds
which pull up colder water from the ocean bottom making the Pacific waters near
the surface 3 to 5*C cooler. (See for this explanation http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/what-is-la-nina.php.)
But some 30 years ago,
when I first learned of El Nino (and La Nina), I told my high school students it is probably
the result of deep, underwater volcanic activity, which, just like land based volcanoes. erupt periodically in surges of varying intensity and spew forth molten lava which transfers heat to the surrounding waters as it cools.
Hawaii, for instance, is one such volcanic ‘outgrowth’ as
deep ocean lava emitted over centuries built up into solid stone thanks to heat
transfer to the adjoining waters.
And today, still active submersed volcanoes around Hawaii ‘grow’ by transferring
heat to the surrounding waters to cool their lava build up.
This, I suggest, is the source of recurring and irregular
surges of El Niño, which will be with us for many centuries to come.
As for La Nina, the cooling ocean occurs when those
volcanoes are dormant and allow the waters to stay cool as well.
Dr. Robert Ballard, the great investigator of the ocean deep (and discovered of the Titanic) in his TV
documentaries argues that the oceans of the world are poorly understood.
Their influence on human life above the waves is far greater
than we imagine.
