Does this mean that the warm water initially found off New Guinea in the western Pacific winds up off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador?
No. The process of adjustment is wavelike – more like a slosh in a bathtub or a lava lamp. Parcels of water do not have to travel great distances in order to reduce the upper layer thickness in the western Pacific or to expand the layer in the east. Drifting buoys released by research vessels show that eastward setting currents on the equator do move parcels toward South America but only over a fraction of the basin width. If this seems strange, consider the familiar experience of a person swimming just beyond the surf at a beach. As a swell overtakes the swimmer, a surge of water carries the person only a short distance toward the beach, yet the deformation of the water column and sea surface (the wave crest) travels a comparatively immense distance.
