The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on lives and economies around the world, but efforts to stem the spread of the virus could mean that the planet itself is moving slightly less. Interestingly, this pandemic has unintentionally produced other large-scale, albeit less conspicuous, effects. In a bittersweet turn, the surreal slowdown in life as we know it has presented researchers with a rare opportunity to study the modern world in some truly bizarre conditions, and they're struggling to collect as much data as possible.
Since people in many countries were forbidden to leave their homes and factories and traffic grounds to stop, the seismic noise, the hum of vibrations in the planet's crust, has decreased.
Seismologists almost everywhere in the world have noticed that in the absence of that noise, Earth's upper crust moves slightly less.
Thomas Lecocq, a geologist and seismologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, has revealed that seismic movements since the start of the crisis have been reduced by a third.
For other part, Susan Hough, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey, stated that "if almost everyone stayed at home and hardly moved, noise levels during the day would approach the usual levels at night," said to Gizmodo in an email.
The UK has also seen a significant decrease in station noise along a road.
Seismologist Stephen Hicks created one of these charts and said, "This week we have seen a reduction in the average level of background seismic noise during the day."
He used data from a British Geological Survey seismometer near the M4 motorway and said it "probably reflects less traffic on the roads."
These measurements serve as a reminder of the ongoing pandemic and of the many ways that human behavior impacts the planet.
Another beneficial aspect of the pandemic is the reduction of air pollution.
Earth observation satellites have seen a significant decrease in the concentration of a common air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, released into the atmosphere by emissions from cars, trucks, buses, and power plants.
Given the large body of evidence that breathing dirty air contributes greatly to premature mortality, the reductions in air pollution in China caused by this economic disruption likely saved twenty times more lives than those currently lost due to the infection with the virus in there.
As a result we can say that covid-19 was a coin with 2 aspects, one positive and other negative, but, as human beings we are always scared of the negative, but sometimes we have to look at the full half of the cup, not only the empty half.
