El Niño is now stronger than at any point in the last 1,000 years, according to a new study. The research, led by Julie Cole of the University of Michigan, reconstructed a thousand-year ocean surface temperature record using fossilized Galápagos corals. These corals grow one to two centimeters annually, forming calcium carbonate skeletons whose chemistry reflects water temperature.

By analyzing strontium-to-calcium ratios and oxygen isotopes, the team created monthly temperature logs stretching back to 1100 CE. The findings reveal that modern El Niño events are 36.5 percent more variable than preindustrial times, with current swings running 16.2 percent higher than the 1851-1982 baseline. Notably, the skewness has turned positive, indicating that warmer events have grown stronger.

The Galápagos region, strategically positioned in the eastern Pacific, provided the only viable location for such long-term coral analysis. While the study confirms unprecedented ENSO intensity, it stops short of definitively proving human causation, though climate models suggest anthropogenic warming is amplifying these natural oscillations.