Are El Niño events becoming more common? Coral reef study reveals 'unprecedented' activity

Scientists have extracted a 400-year record of El Niño events using coral reef cores drilled from the Pacific Ocean, revealing crucial new insight on how these weather patterns have changed. And, the data so far suggest something'unusual' has been happening in recent decades. According to the new research, El Niño events appear to be cropping up more frequently in the central Pacific than they have in past centuries, and while eastern El Niños may be getting stronger. El Niño is caused by a shift in the distribution of warm water in the Pacific Ocean around the equator. Usually the wind blows strongly from east to west, due to the rotation of the Earth, causing water to pile up in the western part of the Pacific.