COVID-19 lockdown effects on the seismic recordings in Central America

Arroyo-Solórzano, Mario; Castro-Rojas, Diego; Massin, Frédérick; Linkimer, Lepolt; Arroyo, Ivonne; Yani, Robin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2127-2021

Articles | Volume 12, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2127-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Social seismology – the effect of COVID-19 lockdown measures...

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2127-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 10

Research article

|

30 Sep 2021

Research article |

| 30 Sep 2021

COVID-19 lockdown effects on the seismic recordings in Central America

Mario Arroyo-Solórzano, Diego Castro-Rojas, Frédérick Massin, Lepolt Linkimer, Ivonne Arroyo, and Robin Yani

Data sets

Red Sismológica Nacional Instituto Nacional De Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Meteorologia e Hidrología de Guatemala (INSIVUMEH) https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/GI

Universidad de Costa Rica Información de la Red Sismológica Nacional de Costa Rica (RSN-UCR) https://doi.org/10.15517/TC

Model code and software

Seismo RMS – A simple Python/Jupyter Notebook package for studying seismic noise changes T. Lecocq, F. Massin, C. Satriano, M. Vanstone, and T. Megies https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3820046

Short summary

We present the first seismic noise variation levels during COVID-19 in Central America using 10 seismometers. We study the impact of the seismic noise reduction on the detectability of earthquakes and on the felt reports. Our results show maximum values (~50 % decrease) at seismic stations near airports and densely inhabited cities. The decrease in seismic noise improved earthquake locations and reports. Seismic noise could also be useful to verify compliance with lockdown measures.