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Friday, July 24, 2020

Imperial College London - The Entire Earth Is Vibrating Less Due to COVID-19 Lockdowns, Study Reveals

Title:
The Entire Earth Is Vibrating Less Due to COVID-19 Lockdowns, Study Reveals

Author:
Michelle Starr

Published:
Science Alert, 23 July 2020
https://www.sciencealert.com/covid-lockdown-has-dramatically-reduced-humans-seismic-pollution

From the article:
We humans are a rowdy, disruptive bunch. Our very day-to-day living causes the planet to hum. Quite literally - driving and travelling, digging and construction, industry, and even sports events all contribute to a constant background hum of high-frequency seismic noise.

Now, thanks to global lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is experiencing the most dramatic reduction in that anthropogenic seismic noise in recorded history.

"This quiet period is likely the longest and largest dampening of human-caused seismic noise since we started monitoring the Earth in detail using vast monitoring networks of seismometers," said seismologist Stephen Hicks of Imperial College London in the UK.