Oceanic and Climatic Phenomena along the West Coast of South America during 1925

Abstract

TH E winter and spring of 1925 witnessed a remarkable change in the customary weather of the arid west coast of South America. In one part of the coast or another occurred a reverse flow of the ocean currents, abnormally high temperatures of the sea water, and torrential rains. The destruction of marine life due to the warming of the ocean and, more particularly, the serious economic effects of rainfall in a rainless region have been featured in the newspapers and the accounts often colored by fantastic interpretations. The writer was in Peru and Ecuador from December 8, I924, until March 12, 1925, on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History. From the early part of January until the end of this period he was engaged, with the assistance of Mr. Van Campen Heilner, in a continuation of the marine zoological work hitherto reported upon in the Geographical Review. The purpose of this article is to consider the events of an extraordinary season in the light of observations made in the field and to correlate these with such data as we could gather from many sources, principally through the kindness of friends in South America.'