GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FROM PERU FOR A 5000 YEARS BP ONSET OF EL-NINO

For the tropical west coast of South America, where El Nino/Southern O scillation (ENSO) is most pronounced, archaeological and associated pa leontological deposits in northern Peru revealed a major climate chang e at about 5000 years before the present (yr B.P.). The data implied t he presence of stable, warm tropical water as far south as 10 degrees S during the early mid-Holocene (about 8000 to 5000 yr B.P.). These da ta suggest that ENSO did not occur for some millennia preceding 5000 y r B.P., when global and regional climate was warmer than today.