A recent article in Science highlights the opportunity presented by the last several months of lockdown: an unprecedented lull in anthropogenic seismic noise (or, “people stopped shaking so much”). Seismologists and researchers have been able to study groundborne vibration and seismic activity that would otherwise have been lost in the noise, which has been reduced by as much as 50% with so many staying home. On the flip side, this correlation also motivates novel ways of tracking human mobility by monitoring this noise floor—simply putting one’s ear to the ground.

Tags: vibration