Geology paper El Nino and La Nina

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Science

Colorado State University: Global Campus

Description

We will be discussing atmosphere and weather in Modules 6 and 7. Choose a weather anomaly, such as El Nino and La Nina, climate change, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, heat waves, ice storms, or other. Be sure to define them, compare them to normal conditions and discuss the consequences of each. Include the economic impact damage to the Earth, and any long term consequences. If applicable, include the way that volcanoes, meteorite impacts, ice cap size fluctuation, or nuclear explosions might change them as well.

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Running Head: El NINO AND LA NINA

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El Nino and La Nina
Institutional Affiliation
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El NINO AND LA NINA

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Introduction

Planet earth is surrounded by a layer of gases or air known as the atmosphere. This
layer of gases is held in place by the earth's gravity. The atmosphere of the earth is very
important because it protects life on earth. This is by absorbing ultraviolet rays which are
radiated by the sun and are harmful to life on earth. The atmosphere is also responsible for
warming the earth surface through the greenhouse effect. It also helps in regulating
temperatures during the day and also during the night. The condition of the atmosphere is
known as weather. Weather can be defined as the degree to which a place is cold or hot, dry
or wet, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy (Iizumi et al., 2014). This state can be well described
by looking at different elements of weather. The elements of weather are basically the
temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, winds, sunshine, and pressure. These elements of
weather bring about the difference in weather conditions and eventually climatic changes.
Climate can be defined as weather conditions of a place recorded over a very long period of
time usually more than 35 years. These recordings form a certain pattern which is referred to
as the climate. However, there are instances where the weather pattern of a place diverts from
the usual. Where this happens it is referred to as weather anomaly. One such anomaly is El
Nino and La Nina which will be discussed in this paper.

Difference between El Nino and La Nina

El Nino and La Nina are opposite phases of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
cycle (Cohen, 2016). Southern oscillation is the episodes of cold and warm temperature.
Oscillations occur naturally in the oceans. ENSO is a scientific term that explains the
differing temperatures between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial
Pacific where El Nino is the warm episode and La Nina is the cold episode. It is documented
that El Nino and La Nina were first discovered in 1600’s by fishermen off the coast of South

El NINO AND LA NINA

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America who experienced an unusually warm temperature of the ocean water. This change
usually occurs in December around Christmas time hence the Spanish name El Nino which
means ‘boy child' or ‘Christ child'. The opposite cold weather was subsequently named La
Nina which means ‘girl child'. El Nino and La Nina phases normally last between nine to
twelve years but they may sometimes prolong for years. They happen after every three to
seven years though El Nino is more frequent than La Nina (Cohen, 2016).

Causes of El Nino and La Nina

El Nino is caused by the increase in temperatures of water in the eastern Pacific
Ocean. This change comes about when trade winds lessen or change their dir...


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