Understanding Natural Phenomena: Earthquakes, El Niño, and Red Tide
Earthquakes: Causes and Effects
An earthquake (from the Greek σεισμός, tremor) is a shaking of the ground produced by the collision of tectonic plates and the release of energy in the course of a sudden reorganization of the crust material to overcome the state of mechanical equilibrium. The most important and frequent earthquakes occur when the stored elastic potential energy is released in the gradual deformation of rocks adjacent to an active fault plane. However, they can also occur from other causes, for example, around volcanic processes, by the collapse of karst cavities, or by landslides.
El Niño: A Climatic Phenomenon
In climatology, El Niño is a cyclical climate syndrome with erratic behavior. It involves a change in the patterns of movements of air masses, causing a delay in the kinetics of ‘normal’ ocean currents. This triggers a warming of South American waters, causing havoc worldwide, affecting South America, Indonesia, and Australia. The name “El Niño” is due to fishermen from the port of Paita in northern Peru. They found that the waters of the Peruvian current system, or Humboldt Current, which flows from south to north off the coast of Peru and Chile, were heated at the time of the holidays. Shoals of fish fled south due to a warm current from the Gulf of Guayaquil (Ecuador). This phenomenon was given the name El Niño, after the Child Jesus. The scientific name of the phenomenon is El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It is a phenomenon with more than eleven thousand years of climate history.
Red Tide: Understanding Algal Blooms
Red tide is an excessive proliferation of microalgae (specifically dinoflagellates) in estuaries or the sea, caused by different types of algae present in large numbers (thousands or millions of cells per cubic millimeter). Although it was originally described for explosions of red algae, now, by extension, the term is used for any microalgae. The massive proliferation of high concentrations of planktonic microorganisms, some of which produce toxins, causes economic losses for aquaculture. This is due to the accumulation of these toxins in animal feeders, especially shellfish such as mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis or Mytilus edulis), clams (Venerupis sp.), oysters (Ostrea gigans), or scallops (Pecten maximus). Major groups of toxins found in these algae are amnesic toxins, paralytic toxins, and gastric toxins. Red tide is a natural phenomenon characterized by an increased concentration of certain components of plankton organisms. Under certain environmental conditions, there is an inordinate increase of phytoplanktonic organisms (especially dinoflagellates), which is known as a bloom, algal bloom, or “bloom,” causing extensive discoloration of water because they have pigments that catch the light of the sun. These pigments can be colored red, yellow, green, brown, or combinations, the most frequent being reddish. Hence, the term “Red Tide” is generalized worldwide.