LONDON : The covid-19 lockdowns globally have not only made air breathable or rivers clean but have also resulted in the way our Earth moves, as researchers now report a drop in seismic noise (the hum of vibrations in the planets crust) because transport networks, real estate and other human activities have been shut down.
According an article in the journal Nature, efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus mean that the planet itself is moving a little less, which could "allow detectors to spot smaller earthquakes and boost efforts to monitor volcanic activity and other seismic events".
Vibrations caused by moving vehicles and industrial machinery produce background noise, which reduces seismologists' ability to detect other signals