Global silencing of the Earth’s vibrations as a result of the lockdown caused by COVID-19
Human activity cause earth vibrations, which propagate in the ground as high-frequency seismic waves. Stop of this activity before COVID-19 pandemic and the biggest lockdown in human history in March-May 2020 period influence on reduction of anthropogenic seismic noise (ASS) by 50%, an event never seen before on such a scale. That seismic silencing, biggest in populated areas, extends further from them, within a radius of many kilometers on the surface and hundreds of meters deep into the Earth.
Compiled from:
Global quieting of high-frequency seismic noise due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures. Lecocq T, Hicks SP, Van Noten K, et al. Jul 2020. Science. 2020. doi:10.1126/science.abd2438
The global inhibition of human activity enabled the detection of subtle signals from subsurface seismic sources previously masked by ASS vibrations (4 – 14 Hz, Fig. 1) as well as the estimation/classification of ASS sources.
Comment
In presented research results shows that seismology allows real-time estimation of population mobility dynamics.
How such global changes in seismic activity will affect our planet, human health and behavior will be shown by future research, and the results of the presented work can certainly become an inspiration for them.
Fig. 1. Global changes in seismic noise compared to population mobility trends. Copied from the original article (doi:10.1126/science.abd2438) and translated; r – correlation coefficient.
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