/ Southern Oscillations
/Research/
![]()
/El Niño, 2024. Ceramic figure with iron crystals/
El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a large-scale climatic event
involving periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central
and eastern Pacific Ocean. This phenomenon disrupts the cold Humboldt
Current, normally flowing northward from Antarctica along the shores of Chile and Peru, as weakened trade winds allow warm water to move
south. These climatic disturbances affect weather patterns globally and
can even cause the Atacama Desert, the driest on Earth, to bloom.
The name “El Niño”, the blond, blue-eyed child, is associated with this
phenomenon as it occurs around Christmas time. The arrival of Jesus
and the missionary conquest by the Spaniards, profoundly impacted
the southern continent, imposing new beliefs on native peoples and
landscapes. However, ancestral cosmologies continue to resonate with
the Pacific and the Andes. The Spondylus, a precious pink shell once
considered the food of the gods, still migrates south with the warm
waters, heralding the arrival of fertile rains on the desert coasts./
![]()
/
Spondylus shell/
![]()
/Añañuca de Fuego, 2024.
Copper crystals on bronze/
![]()
/Añañuca.
Bloomed desert 2017
Atacama, Chile/
![]()
/Añañuca flower field.
Bloomed desert 2017
Atacama, Chile/
/ Southern Oscillations
/Research/
El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a large-scale climatic event
involving periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central
and eastern Pacific Ocean. This phenomenon disrupts the cold Humboldt
Current, normally flowing northward from Antarctica along the shores of Chile and Peru, as weakened trade winds allow warm water to move
south. These climatic disturbances affect weather patterns globally and
can even cause the Atacama Desert, the driest on Earth, to bloom.
The name “El Niño”, the blond, blue-eyed child, is associated with this
phenomenon as it occurs around Christmas time. The arrival of Jesus
and the missionary conquest by the Spaniards, profoundly impacted
the southern continent, imposing new beliefs on native peoples and
landscapes. However, ancestral cosmologies continue to resonate with
the Pacific and the Andes. The Spondylus, a precious pink shell once
considered the food of the gods, still migrates south with the warm
waters, heralding the arrival of fertile rains on the desert coasts./
![]()
/
Spondylus shell/
/Añañuca. Bloomed desert 2017 Atacama, Chile/
/Añañuca flower field. Bloomed desert 2017 Atacama, Chile/
