The lack of human activity, during the global closure to curb the spread of the global epidemic of Corona, caused human-associated vibrations on Earth to decrease by an average of 50% between March and May 2020.

These results came in a new research published on the July 23 of the "Science Science" journal. It highlighted the impact of human activities on the solid earth, as researchers directed their attention to distinguishing between man-made seismic noise and natural earthquakes.

Corona and human noise

With the increase in urbanization and the world's population, more people live in geologically hazardous areas, but with dense and multiple human activity in normal times, it is difficult to distinguish between natural vibrations and those caused by humans.

The new research is the result of cooperation between the Royal Observatory in Belgium and five other research institutions around the world, including Imperial College London, and the publication of a report on it on the Science Daily website took advantage of the closure to try to achieve this distinction.

He pointed out that the decrease in the rate of human activity during the period of closure due to the Corona virus has caused the suppression of "seismic noise" resulting from human activities, especially in densely populated places.

After browsing the data from the earthquake monitoring devices and stations, the scientists noticed that the "seismic noise" that is usually caused by human activities decreased by 50% between March and May.

It is the longest and quietest period of closure in the history of the modern world, and was characterized by measures of social separation, closure of services and industry, tourism prevention and travel restrictions.

This relative calm allowed the researchers to distinguish seismic signals that were not previously recognized due to the dispersion resulting from human-made noise. Thus, scientists are able to distinguish between natural tremors and those caused by human activities more clearly than ever before.

Seismic data audit

Although the year 2020 did not witness a decrease in earthquakes, the suppression of man-made seismic noise was an unprecedented event during the global closure period due to the epidemic, as the noise resulting from human activities usually subsides vacation periods such as Christmas and Chinese New Year, and on weekends as well .

When checking the seismic data of the global monitoring stations, a significant noise reduction was found in 185 stations (Imperial College London)

When checking the seismic data of global monitoring stations from 268 seismic stations in 117 countries, the researchers found a significant decrease in human-made noise in 185 stations, starting with China in late January 2020, followed by Europe and the rest of the world in the period between March / Last March and April.

The researchers noted that the suppression was concentrated in densely populated areas, such as Singapore and New York City, in addition to remote areas such as the German Black Forest and Rondo in Namibia.

A significant reduction in man-made noise was observed in the vicinity of universities and schools in the United Kingdom and Boston, in the United States. This decrease was estimated at 20% of the value of monitoring previous years during school holidays. Countries like Barbados, whose closure coincided with the tourist season, witnessed a 50% decrease in that noise.

The relative calm allowed researchers to distinguish previously unrecognized seismic signals due to dispersal of anthropogenic noise (Imperial College London)

Human seismic noise

It can be said that perhaps the closures - caused by the Corona virus pandemic - have given us a glimmer of hope about knowing how human and natural noise interact within the Earth.

We hope this insight will generate new studies that help us better understand Earth's activity and the pure signals it produces, which can help warn of upcoming natural disasters.