The whole world is temporarily suspending economic production to fight the epidemic. Industrial machinery and transportation are not working, so the vibrations are reduced by a third. This makes it easier to study volcanic activity and earthquakes.
Geological vibrations come from “cultural noise” – which is the sum total of all kinds of noise generated from human’s daily life and production. These include sounds from industry, transportation, music, and even the voices of billions of people around the planet.
The Earth seems to be quieter since Covid-19 appeared – (Photo: NASA).
The Earth’s persistent geological vibrations are one of the major obstacles in the study of volcanic activity and earthquakes. But since the appearance of Covid-19 from the end of December 2019, this vibration has decreased by a third, according to NewsWeek.
The reason is said to be the implementation of measures by countries around the world to blockade, isolate and suspend production and business activities. People no longer go out to the streets, vehicles do not work, industrial machinery also stops making the Earth “quiet” , no longer noisy.
Besides reducing noise, the air also becomes cleaner. A recent study by Columbia University (USA) shows that reducing vehicles on the road and industrial production can cause carbon dioxide emissions to plummet by nearly 50% compared to 2019.
Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, said the sharp drop in tremors made Belgium really quiet. The same is measured in the UK and the US.
In the study of Earth’s geology in particular, noise reduction is a useful thing. Because, usually, when measuring vibrations, scientists take a lot of time to study and filter out what is vibration from the ground and what is vibration from the Earth’s surface caused by humans. The confusion between the two types of vibrations easily leads to wrong judgments.
But now, looking at it positively, this research is easier to do.