Seismic background noise dramatically decreased as a result of lockdown measures in place for mitigating the spread of COVID-19. The great seismic quiet period Noise from trains, airplanes, industrial processes, and other sources is recorded on seismometers worldwide. Disentangling this noise is important for extracting out natural signals, but the noise can also roughly track population movements. Lecocq et al. compiled seismic observations around the world and found a substantial decrease in noise resulting from lockdown measures imposed in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic (see the Perspective by Denolle and Nissen-Meyer). These observations tightly correspond to when the measures went into effect and offer a way to track aggregate behavior. This quiet period also offers the chance to extract anthropogenic sources of noise from those of natural processes. Science, this issue p. 1338; see also p. 1299 Human activity causes vibrations that propagate into the ground as high-frequency seismic waves. Measures to mitigate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused widespread changes in human activity, leading to a months-long reduction in seismic noise of up to 50%. The 2020 seismic noise quiet period is the longest and most prominent global anthropogenic seismic noise reduction on record. Although the reduction is strongest at surface seismometers in populated areas, this seismic quiescence extends for many kilometers radially and hundreds of meters in depth. This quiet period provides an opportunity to detect subtle signals from subsurface seismic sources that would have been concealed in noisier times and to benchmark sources of anthropogenic noise. A strong correlation between seismic noise and independent measurements of human mobility suggests that seismology provides an absolute, real-time estimate of human activities.

中文翻译：

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由于 COVID-19 大流行封锁措施，高频地震噪声在全球范围内安静下来

由于采取了减缓 COVID-19 传播的锁定措施，地震背景噪音显着降低。世界各地的地震仪都记录了来自火车、飞机、工业过程和其他来源的巨大地震静默期噪声。解开这种噪音对于提取自然信号很重要，但噪音也可以粗略地跟踪人口运动。莱科克等人。汇编了世界各地的地震观测结果，发现因应对 2019 年冠状病毒病大流行而采取的封锁措施导致噪音大幅减少（参见 Denolle 和 Nissen-Meyer 的观点）。这些观察结果与措施生效的时间紧密对应，并提供了一种跟踪总体行为的方法。这个安静时期也提供了从自然过程中提取人为噪声源的机会。科学，这个问题 p。第1338章 另见第 1299 人类活动引起的振动以高频地震波的形式传播到地下。缓解 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行的措施引起了人类活动的广泛变化，导致地震噪声在长达数月的时间内减少了 50%。2020 年地震噪声静默期是有记录以来最长、最突出的全球人为地震噪声降低。尽管人口稠密地区的地表地震仪的减弱幅度最大，但这种地震静止会径向延伸数公里，深度数百米。这个安静时期提供了一个机会来检测来自地下地震源的微妙信号，这些信号在嘈杂的时间会被隐藏，并为人为噪声源提供基准。地震噪声与人类活动的独立测量之间的强相关性表明，地震学提供了对人类活动的绝对、实时估计。