Greece has a population over 10.7 million people, double that of British Columbia. To date they have had 1,955 Covid-19 cases and 55 deaths. The Greek government undertook a lockdown of their citizens to control the spread of the disease with a surprising side effect.
With the decrease of ” human-generated noise levels”, Greece has become a seismologist’s dream~small earthquakes that could not be registered because of human noise are now able to be recorded.
As Rene Maltezou with Reuters.com reports, seismologists compare their quest for earth rumblings with that of astronomers trying to find a night sky in the city. As one seismologist stated “For us, it’s like the lights are turned off”. The data being collected enables researchers to look for subtle patterns in seismic events that would not be detected with normal human based noise.
And in the United States, seismologists are finding there is actually less seismic noise with minimal disturbances caused from vehicular and other types of transport. It’s been determined that the earth’s upper crust “is moving just a little less”. One researcher at the Royal Observatory in Belgium estimates that vibrations have decreased over 30 percent with quarantine and physical distancing restrictions.
The New Yorker has prepared three videos of the currently quieter streets and sounds of New York City, Milan and Rome during the Covid crisis. We’ve included the video of New York City, quieter and more vacant, below.
Images: Rogermontgomery.com & InsuranceJournal
