Coronavirus lockdowns reduce Earth’s seismic noise. Here's how

Coronavirus lockdowns have disrupted normal life and businesses across multiple countries. In order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, billions of people in these countries have been home-quarantined. The movement of transports and factories has been temporarily shut down. However, researchers have found that the lack of movement on the surface has resulted in some unexpected shifts in Earth's vibrations. The global lockdown is making the Earth's crust vibrate lesser than usual. 

According to the seismologists at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, the surface seismometer at the observatory has become more sensitive to the seismic activity which it might have missed prior to the worldwide lockdown. Seismic noise inside the Earth is the hum of vibration in the crust of the planet which is produced by normal human activity. However, in the aftermath of the lockdown, scientists are witnessing a decrease in the seismic noise in the planet's crust.

Researchers further state that these changes in Earth's vibrations will help the detectors in spotting smaller earthquakes and will augment the efforts to monitor volcanic activity, storms, ocean waves, and other subtle seismic events. Geologists usually use a detector buries 100 metres under the surface of the Earth to measure the seismic sound accurately. But, experts suggest that the Earth's natural vibrations can be easily studied through surface seismic readings.

Scientists at the observatory also state that human-induced seismic noise has fallen by about one-third in Brussels due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Geologists are witnessing similar reductions in seismic vibrations in parts of London, Paris, LA, Greece, India and New Zealand amid the prevailing lockdown. Human activities such as traveling, transportation, loud sounds create vibrations leading to anthropogenic seismic noise or sounds. 

A substantial amount of human activity including the movement of vehicle traffic and construction activities produces a significant proportion of "background noise" which created problems for the scientists to detect natural events at the same frequency. In the wake of a drop in human movement on Earth's surface, the reduced noise/seismic activity is helping the seismologists to better study the Earth's crust through background vibrations.

Scientists also revealed that a noise reduction of such a magnitude is only experienced during Christmas time for a short moment every year.

Meanwhile, on April 14, the number of Coronavirus positive cases rose above 19,37,000 worldwide. Over 120,600 people have lost their lives to the disease as per recent data.