Abstract
Abstract. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the city of Barcelona was covered by a dense seismic network consisting of up to 19 seismic sensors. This network has provided an excellent tool to investigate in detail the background seismic-noise variations associated with the lockdown measures. Permanent stations facilitate comparing the seismic noise recorded during the lockdown quieting with long-term variations due to holiday periods. On the other hand, the data acquired by the dense network show the differences between sites located near industrial areas, transportation hubs or residential areas. The results confirm that the quieting of human activity during lockdown has resulted in a reduction in seismic vibrations in the 2–20 Hz band that is clearly higher than during holiday seasons. This effect is observed throughout the city, but only those stations not affected by very proximal sources of vibration (construction sites, industries) are clearly correlated with the level of activity denoted by other indicators. Our contribution demonstrates that seismic amplitude variations can be used as a proxy for human activity in urban environments, providing details similar to those offered by other mobility indicators.
Highlights
Connecting students with seismology is a challenge in countries not affected by strong earthquakes
We can conclude that seismic data in the 2– 20 Hz band are a good proxy of the local anthropogenic activity
The effects of the lockdown measures taken after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic are clearly seen at most sites, as previously documented at a worldwide scale (i.e., Lecocq et al, 2020a)
Summary
Connecting students with seismology is a challenge in countries not affected by strong earthquakes. In order to mitigate this problem, the SANIMS research project included the deployment of a seismic network within the city of Barcelona, with most of the instruments installed in the facilities of secondary schools (Diaz et al, 2020). The objective of the project was to acquire data of scientific interest to investigate the feasibility of ambient-noise studies based on tomographic and interferometric methods in urban environments and to promote the knowledge about seismology and Earth sciences among high school students. The network was deployed in September 2019, and 50 % of the sites were instrumented using the low-cost Raspberry Shake devices, which provide online access to the data in real time, facilitating the involvement of the students. An unexpected result of this deployment has been the possibility of studying in detail the seismic-noise variations within the city of Barcelona during the quieting associated with the COVID-19 lockdown
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