Although the primary objective of seismic stations is the recording of waves generated by natural seismicity, the sensors can detect vibrations generated by different sources of natural and anthropogenic origin. The interest in identifying these sources has increased in the last years with the use of background seismic vibrations to obtain images of the crustal structure by tomographic methods and to monitor different natural processes. We present here a very particular case of these types of sources, the bell ringing in churches to indicate the passage of time. In some particular cases, the vibrations generated by the ringing of the bells are recorded in seismic stations installed near the bell towers. We review different examples throughout Europe of this particular kind of seismic records to illustrate how the seismic records can provide information on the traditions followed to mark the hours in some European countries, which turn out to be very different. The objective is not only to publicize this curious records but also to show that bridges can be built between very different scientific disciplines, such as seismology and social sciences, since the seismic data offers a new tool to researchers interested in investigating ethnographic aspects related to how the passage of time is marked in different European cultures.

尽管地震台站的主要目的是记录自然地震产生的波，但是传感器可以检测到自然和人为来源不同的源所产生的振动。近年来，通过使用背景地震振动来通过层析成像方法获取地壳结构的图像并监视不同的自然过程，人们越来越需要识别这些震源。我们在这里介绍这些来源的一个非常特殊的情况，教堂的钟声响起，表明时间的流逝。在某些特定情况下，由于钟声响起而产生的振动记录在安装在钟楼附近的地震台中。我们回顾了整个欧洲有关这种特殊地震记录的不同示例，以说明地震记录如何提供有关某些欧洲国家标记小时所遵循的传统的信息，而事实却大不相同。目的不仅是宣传这些令人好奇的记录，而且还表明可以在非常不同的科学学科（例如地震学和社会科学）之间架起桥梁，因为地震数据为有兴趣研究人种学方面相关问题的研究人员提供了一种新工具。时间的流逝在不同的欧洲文化中得到了体现。