El Nino may be Triggered by a Volcanic Eruption in the Tropics

A new study suggests that an eruption of a large volcano in the tropics could cause El Nino to emerge, UPI said.

Southern oscillation, part of which is El Niño, is associated with periodic changes in the winds and temperatures of the sea surface. This periodic variability includes two patterns - the warming El Nino and the cooling La Nina. One of the two is observed approximately every 3-7 years, occurs at the end of the calendar year and covers the winter months.

Scientists from Rutgers University in New Branchwick, New Jersey, were interested in samples of Southern oscillation after several volcanic eruptions in the tropics, including the eruptions of the volcanoes of Santa Maria in Guatemala in 1902, Agung in Indonesia in 1963, El Chichon in Mexico in 1982 and Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.

Interest was mainly directed at Pinatubo, for which detailed weather data is the most. The analysis showed that 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide discharged from Pinatubo unlocked a series of climatic interactions that contributed to El Nino's emergence in the Pacific Ocean.