A thousand years of coral history proves that current swings in Pacific Ocean temperatures are the most extreme on record.
Coral skeletons act like ancient thermometers that record sea surface temperatures over centuries. This geochemical analysis of corals in the eastern Pacific reveals that recent El Niño and La Niña events are unprecedented. The intensity of these temperature swings now exceeds anything seen in the last millennium. This data proves that the changes we see today are not just part of a natural long-term cycle. These extreme swings are directly linked to global warming and are hitting the planet harder than ever before.
Recent intensification of eastern Pacific ENSO is unprecedented across the last millennium
EarthArXiv · 10.31223/X5KN20
The Pacific El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon generates climate extremes that endanger ecosystems, infrastructure, and human well-being worldwide. The response of this system to climate warming is poorly constrained, due to data scarcity and climate model biases, making projections of future climate hazards uncertain. The geochemistry of Galápagos coral skeletons across the past millennium reveals an unprecedented increase in interannual variability of sea surface temperature in the