Church bells and ground motions

Jordi Diaz

doi:10.1007/s10950-020-09935-2

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Following the development of new techniques to use the vibrations recorded in the absence of seismic waves, often referred to as "ambient seismic noise", to image the crustal structure using tomographic methods (Campillo and Paul, 2003), interest in the sources of the vibrations has increased significantly
We have shown how seismic recordings can be used to document the different traditions followed in Europe to mark the hours using striking clocks installed in bell towers
Two mechanisms can be invoked to explain the seismic recordings of bell ringing

Summary

Introduction

Following the development of new techniques to use the vibrations recorded in the absence of seismic waves, often referred to as "ambient seismic noise", to image the crustal structure using tomographic methods (Campillo and Paul, 2003), interest in the sources of the vibrations has increased significantly. We present examples of the different traditions followed in Europe to indicate the pass of time using the bell ringing. We use seismic data retrieved from broad-band seismic stations installed near tower bells at four sites located in Greece (Western Peloponnese), Italy (Calabria), southern

Results

Conclusion