GWP - OCEANOGRAPHY

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THE 'EL NIÑO' PHENOMENOM

Isotherms, July 2002

The Phenomenom of "El Niño Jesus"
It is a change of the Humboldt system in an occasional, irregular and aperiodic warming in the first 40 meters of the southamerican waters. The temperature raises about 2° C ("Kelvin's waves" under-superficial warms coming from Indonesia), that takes away the fish and causes changes in the climatic patterns:
* The wind invert its circulation: during El Niño the wind blows from Indonesia (higher pressure) to South America (lower pressure)
* The climate inverts: the South American coast becomes tropical (rainy) and Indonesia becomes dry
* Central America: drought and hurricaned winds
* North America: hurricanes and heavy snow
* Brasil coasts: disappearance of beaches
* Indonesia forests: big fires
* Europe: heavy rains and flood
* South Africa: draught and lost of 50% of the harvest crops

OCEANOGRAPHY
Main topics to study:
* Underwater morphology
* Formation and disposition of the marine sediments
* Chemical composition of the waters and seas
* Sea movements
* Atmosphere and hydrosphere relationships
* Marine flora and fauna (hydrobiology)
* Relationship between the sea and human activities

Atlantic Ocean

Targets
* 1872: The first oceanographic station is built in Napoles
* 1872-1876: The english ship 'Challenger' gives the characteristics of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans
* 1885-1922: Prince Albert I of Monaco patronages different oceanographical exploration and founds the oceanographical Museum of the Princedom
* 1954: the physician Auguste Piccard goes down to 3150 m in the Tirreno Sea
* 1960: Jacques Piccard goes down to 10915 m in Mariana's Basin
* 1965: Scott Carpenter goes down to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean
* 1969: USA scientists study the sea bed close to the Virgin Islands in the Tektite I

Jacques-Yves Cousteau stands out because he was who made many innovations like this scientific submarine

Tektite I submarine station

Underwater relief of the chilean sea

* Continental platform
* Slope
* Abyssal basin
* Underwatersheds: of Peru, Chile and Baker
* Dorsum (underwater mountains): Nazca, Chile and the Pacific

* Antartic Current
* Humboldt Current
* Günther Current