According to seismologists, that drastic reduction in human hustle and bustle is causing the Earth to move substantially less. The planet is 'standing still'.
Thomas Lecocq, a geologist and seismologist at the Royal Observatory in Belgium, noticed that the country's capital Brussels is experiencing a 30 to 50 percent reduction in ambient seismic noise since the lockdowns began, as CNN reports.
That means data collected by seismologists is becoming more accurate, capable of detecting even the smallest tremors - despite the fact that many of the scientific instruments in use today are near city centers.
"You'll get a signal with less noise on top, allowing you to squeeze a little more information out of those events," Andy Frassetto, a seismologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington DC told Nature.
Researchers in Los Angeles and in West London, UK noticed a similar trend.
But seismologists collecting data from remote stations far away from human civilization might not see a change at all, according to Nature.
Regardless, a significant drop in seismic noise also shows that we're at least doing one thing right during the current pandemic: staying in the safety of our own homes as we wait for the virus to run its course.
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