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Showing posts with label Geoscience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geoscience. Show all posts

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Anthropogenic Seismic Noise & COVID-19

Reduction of anthropogenic seismic noise due to COVID-19 lockdown

                                                                                                                                  -- Sandro Chatterjee

The Planet Earth is still trying its best to get rid of the unwanted guest, COVID-19. The impact of the virus is going to have a prolonged effect on the history of mankind. The down falling economies, joblessness, death of an entire generation are the harshest truth to stand with. But as the earth already refused to surrender in this battle vs. COVID -19, scientists all around the globe are looking for every positive impact in the upcoming days due to this deadly virus and the positive effects are now being signaled by the pulse of a seismometer.

The lack of human activities due to this prolonged lockdown caused human linked vibrations to be decreased by 50% between March and May 2020. The quiet period caused by the increasing social distancing, closure of industries, pubs, hotels, stadiums, and movies is the longest and most pronounced quiet period of Seismic noise ever recorded. The research work, led by Royal Observatory of Belgium and Imperial College London shows the dampening effects are most prominent in the densely populated areas. The quietness and the decreased human-generated noise are helping the researchers to accurately differentiate between natural and human seismic noises and are allowing them to detect previously concealed earthquake signals. The study also found the signatures of this lockdown measure on sensors buried hundreds of meters under the ground in remote areas. Researchers are eager to name this quiet period as “Anthropause”, as the anthropogenic activities are minimal and are the main causes to create this historical period. To read the full story Click Here.


The reduced anthropogenic noise in Brussels, Belgium after lockdown (source: Royal Observatory of Belgium)


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