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I know almost nothing about seismology or geology so forgive my naiveté here: Could the lack of movement caused by everybody staying home actually inadvertentl

I know almost nothing about seismology or geology so forgive my naiveté here: Could the lack of movement caused by everybody staying home actually inadvertently induce greater than normal seismic events? By that I mean I'm wondering if all of our moving around normally may be like nano events that cumulatively ease pressure on fault lines? Almost like all of our movements sort-of force the faults to gently slip all the time instead of making giant movements, thus releasing an earthquake. But if we're not moving around much then that pressure starts to build up.

dogsgobork 7y ago
I doubt the rumblings of our transportation activity has much impact on earthquakes. The energy put out by a jetliner landing or the heaviest of trucks rolling by is minuscule, and typically earthquakes occur at depths measured in kilometers. Our seismic sensors are only several meters in depth, or at the surface, making them more susceptible to the seismic noise of our small man-made sources.
- lmilcin 7y ago
  Seismic activity at a low level is triggered by much smaller forces. A small shock like a truck can cause two pieces of rock that are in tension to move against each other, causing a tremor. Same way as water can be overheated or supercooled when there is no trigger present, impurity or shock that will localize the start of reaction, the Earth crust can store a little bit of extra energy when there is not enough trigger. This is only temporary effect, after some time the level will come back even without increase in human activity. When human activity is restored what you can expect is seismic activity above normal levels, for some time until the stored energy is dissipated.
  - pixl97 7y ago
    Human locomotion activity is still tiny in those regards. A much bigger effect is the amount of water we pump and move which is very heavy and can directly induce earthquakes.
    - bacon_waffle 7y ago
      ...or oil we pump, right?
      - redtexture 7y ago
        Oklahoma residents and seismologists report fewer micro tremors on weekends when oil well fracking is not pushing fluids into wells.
labster 7y ago
Oh no, it's World Jump Day all over again. Wikipedia is boring so they deleted the page, but the Archive has the details (and unlimited free books): https://web.archive.org/web/20190221002919/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Jump_Day https://web.archive.org/web/20190221002919/https://en.wikipe...
- kumarharsh 7y ago
  The XKCD what-if has done some calculations on what would happen if everybody jumped at the same time: https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/
phkahler 7y ago
>> Could the lack of movement caused by everybody staying home actually inadvertently induce greater than normal seismic events? I think the answer is not a question of "could" but "to what extent". It may not even be detectable, but the principle you described seem sound.
nordsieck 7y ago
> By that I mean I'm wondering if all of our moving around normally may be like nano events that cumulatively ease pressure on fault lines? Probably not. It's a pretty widely held opinion that the earthquakes from fracking - generally 2-4 on the Richter scale - didn't do anything to ease pressure on fault lines. People moving around is much lower energy than that.

dogsgobork 7y ago

I doubt the rumblings of our transportation activity has much impact on earthquakes. The energy put out by a jetliner landing or the heaviest of trucks rolling by is minuscule, and typically earthquakes occur at depths measured in kilometers. Our seismic sensors are only several meters in depth, or at the surface, making them more susceptible to the seismic noise of our small man-made sources.

lmilcin 7y ago
Seismic activity at a low level is triggered by much smaller forces. A small shock like a truck can cause two pieces of rock that are in tension to move against each other, causing a tremor. Same way as water can be overheated or supercooled when there is no trigger present, impurity or shock that will localize the start of reaction, the Earth crust can store a little bit of extra energy when there is not enough trigger. This is only temporary effect, after some time the level will come back even without increase in human activity. When human activity is restored what you can expect is seismic activity above normal levels, for some time until the stored energy is dissipated.
- pixl97 7y ago
  Human locomotion activity is still tiny in those regards. A much bigger effect is the amount of water we pump and move which is very heavy and can directly induce earthquakes.
  - bacon_waffle 7y ago
    ...or oil we pump, right?
    - redtexture 7y ago
      Oklahoma residents and seismologists report fewer micro tremors on weekends when oil well fracking is not pushing fluids into wells.

labster 7y ago

Oh no, it's World Jump Day all over again. Wikipedia is boring so they deleted the page, but the Archive has the details (and unlimited free books): https://web.archive.org/web/20190221002919/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Jump_Day https://web.archive.org/web/20190221002919/https://en.wikipe...

kumarharsh 7y ago
The XKCD what-if has done some calculations on what would happen if everybody jumped at the same time: https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/

phkahler 7y ago

>> Could the lack of movement caused by everybody staying home actually inadvertently induce greater than normal seismic events? I think the answer is not a question of "could" but "to what extent". It may not even be detectable, but the principle you described seem sound.

nordsieck 7y ago

> By that I mean I'm wondering if all of our moving around normally may be like nano events that cumulatively ease pressure on fault lines? Probably not. It's a pretty widely held opinion that the earthquakes from fracking - generally 2-4 on the Richter scale - didn't do anything to ease pressure on fault lines. People moving around is much lower energy than that.