El Niño WebQuest

YOUR TASK

As members of the world scientific community, it is your job to assess the threat of future El Niños on your country and others by looking at what has happened in the past. Answer the following questions using the links provided so that you will be able to answer the larger question fully…

What can/should humans do in response to El Niño and its effects?

Identifying El Niño

1. What is El Niño?

2. How often does El Niño occur?

3. Why does El Niño occur?

4. What impacts/effects has El Niño had?

5. Where and how does El Niño affect upwelling?

What is an El Niño?

El Niño, Making Sense of the Weather

El Niño Rules!

Impacts of El Niño

Upwelling

Places affected:

Click on the place names to read magazine and newspapers articles from the Student Resource Center Gold

about the effect of El Niño in the region.

6. Which countries does El Niño affect? How?

7. How, specifically, does the change in ocean surface temperatures affect these countries?

8. Why does El Niño affect various countries differently?

Countries: Prepare Now for Next El Niño

El Niño Scorecard

El Niño’s Reach

Weather Around the World

(see below)

Alaska	Antarctica	Arizona	Atlantic Ocean	Australia
Brazil	California	China	Colombia (coffee)	Ecuador
Gulf of Mexico	Indonesia	Mexico	New Guinea	Pacific Ocean
Panama	Peru	South Africa	Southeast Asia

Managing El Niño

9. Can El Niño be predicted? If so how, if not, why not?

10. Can the effects of El Niño be mitigated? If so how, if not, why not?

11. Can El Niño be stopped? If so how, if not, why not?

12. Can Icebergs be used to stop El Niño?

List of Impacts & Prediction Benefits

All Eyes on El Niño

Benefits of Prediction

Can El Niño be Stopped?

Icebergs and El Niño

Glossary of Terms –If you wonder what the words mean, take a look at this site