Now, crowded city streets are now empty. Highway traffic has slowed to a minimum, fewer and fewer people are found outside. Around four billion people (approx half the world’s population) have been told to isolate themselves in their homes to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The significant reduction in the hum of normal human activity has lead to a surprising shift in Earth’s vibrations. The lack of noise means “Earth’s upper crust is moving just a little less,” according to CNN.
Scientists tell that coronavirus lockdowns around the world are making the Earth move less. Since people in many countries are stuck from leaving their homes, factories and traffic ground to a stop, seismic noise, hum of vibrations in the planet’s crust have dropped. The researchers told The Independent the change will not only make it easier to detect earthquake signals, but also provide a lesson for the environment. The vibrations from cars, trains, buses, factories and people going about their daily life to create background noise (noise pollution) that make Earth’s crust move.
Residents of Brussels have been told to stay at home, leaving the city’s streets empty. Credit: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty
Thomas Lecocq, a geologist and seismologist at the Roya Observatory in Belgium first pointed out this miracle in Brussels. Brussels is seeing about a 30% to 50% reduction in ambient seismic noise since mid-March, around the time the country started implementing school, business closures and other distancing measures, according to Lecocq. He discovered that about one-third of vibrations have decreased because of social distancing and quarantine restrictions, according to CBS News. That noise level is equal with what seismologists (the scientific study of earthquakes) would see on Christmas Day, he stated. Since quarantine measures were introduced, the surface seismometer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium has become more sensitive to quieter seismic activity that it would have earlier missed, which could lead to more precise measurements of small quakes, quarry blasts, storms and crashing ocean waves. The reduction in noise has provided scientists with a small profit - seismic detection equipment is now more sensitive, Thomas explained to Nature. With an overall quieter planet, seismologists around the globe can anticipate enhanced abilities in instruments that detect the locations of earthquakes and aftershocks.
Source: Royal Observatory of Belgium
Lecocq said, “This is really getting quiet now in Belgium”.
Dr Lecocq told The Independent that the capacity of noisy stations those affected by human-generated vibrations to detect smaller earthquake signals was larger since the coronavirus lockdown.
But the findings are also sociological, he said: “Every individual thinks he is ‘alone at home’, but all together, we are making something big for the ‘seismic environment’ – and we can probably learn a lesson here for other parts of the environment.
“The reason we are home is terrifying, but in the future, maybe, some critical number of individuals will change their ways, avoiding single-occupancy car-commuting.” Dr Lecocq said there was no proof that the fall in human activity would create earthquakes less expected.
Source: Seismologie.be
Update for Brussels. The background level remains low and stable (~33%).
In February, news articles were published when space images showed a huge fall in pollution over China as factories close. Studies show that it had cut 40% during the lockdown in China.
“By combining satellite observations with detailed computer models of the atmosphere, their studies indicated a reduction of around 20-30 percent in surface particulate matter over large parts of China,” ESA reported Friday.
Pollution levels in January contrast with those in February
Source: The Independent
Air pollution causes an estimated 1.1 million deaths every year in China and costs the Chinese economy $38 billion USD. Earlier last month, Stanford Earth Sciences Professor Marshall Burke projected two months of coronavirus lockdown had saved the lives of 77,000 Chinese children and elderly from air pollution alone. Worldwide, air pollution kills around 7 million people annually, including 100,000 Americans.
Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre said, “This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event”. She said she had seen a drop in nitrogen dioxide levels during the economic collapse of 2008 but she said that decrease more regular.
This year, pollution levels did not rise again after Chinese new year, unlike last year
Source: The Independent
The number of coronavirus cases worldwide continues to skyrocket, with over 1.5 million confirmed positive cases and over 89,000 deaths as of Friday 10 April.
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