The last ice age peaked around 20,000 years ago and was marked by extensive glaciation and dramatic climate shifts that reshaped Earth's oceans, landscapes and ecosystems. A study led by the University of Arizona suggests that Earth's last ice age may provide crucial insights into future El Niño weather events. El Niño is one of the most influential climate patterns affecting global weather.
The study, published in Nature, combines data from ancient shells of marine organisms with advanced climate modeling to shed light on how El Niño patterns might change in a warming world.
El Niño is a climate phenomenon characterized by the irregular but periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. This leads to disruption of global weather patterns and causes extreme events like droughts, floods and heat waves.
"El Niño is a formidable force of nature—it induces droughts, floods and wildfires, disrupting marine and terrestrial ecosystems across the planet, with pervasive societal impacts across numerous sectors, from agriculture to the aviation industry," said Kaustubh Thirumalai, the study's co-lead author and an assistant professor in the U of A Department of Geosciences.
El Niño events occur approximately every two to seven years, and anticipating how these events might change in the future is a major challenge for climate scientists.
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