About Lake Titicaca:
- It is the highest navigable water body in the world, located in the Andes Mountains of South America.
- It lies on the border between Peruto the west and Bolivia to the east. It is the second-largest lake in South America (after Maracaibo).
- More than 25 rivers empty their waters into Titicaca; the largest, the Ramis, drains about two-fifths of the entire Titicaca Basin.
- Forty-one islands rise from Titicaca’s waters, the largest of which, Titicaca Island.
- Lake Titicaca is a designated Ramsar Site of International Importance.
What are El Nino and La Nina?
- El Nino and La Nina events occur every two to seven years on average (El Nino is more frequent than La Nina), but not on a regular basis, and together are referred to as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle by scientists.
- El Nino is typically known as the warm phase(a band of warmer water spreading from west to east in the equatorial Pacific Ocean), and La Nina is identified as the cold phase (a band of cooler water spreading east to west) of ENSO.
- What happens during El Nino?
- During El Niño, trade winds weaken.
- Warm water is pushed back east, toward the west coast of the Americas.
- Rainfall increases drastically in Ecuador and northern Peru, contributing to coastal flooding and erosion.
- As El Niño brings rain to South America, it brings droughts to Indonesia and Australia.
- The eastward movement of oceanic and atmospheric heat sources causes unusually severe winter weather at the higher latitudes of North and South America.
