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The world experienced the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2020. Governments implemented strategies to contain it, most based on lockdowns. Mexico was no exception. The lockdown was initiated in March 2020, and with it, a reduction in the seismic noise level was witnessed by the seismic stations of the national and Valley of Mexico networks. Stations located in municipalities with more than 50 000 people usually experience larger seismic noise levels at frequencies between 1 and 5 Hz, associated with human activity. The largest noise levels are recorded in Mexico City, which has the largest population in the country. The largest drop was observed in Hermosillo, Sonora; however, it was also the city with the fastest return to activities, which seems to correlate with a quick increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases. Mexico initiated a traffic-light system to modulate the re-opening of economic activities for each state. Therefore, since 1 June, noise levels have generally reflected the colour of the state traffic light. Furthermore, the reduction in the noise level at seismic stations has allowed identification of smaller earthquakes without signal processing. Also, people in cities have perceived smaller or more distant quakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismometers have detected the social response to lockdown measures implemented following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in cities around the world. This long-lasting pandemic has been a particular challenge in countries such as Mexico, where the informal economy constitutes most of the working population. This context motivated the monitoring of the mobility of populations throughout the various phases of lockdown measures independently of people's access to the internet and mobile technology. Here we use the variation of anthropogenic seismic noise in the city of Querétaro (central Mexico) recorded by a network of low-cost Raspberry Shake seismic stations to study the spatial and temporal variation of human activity in the city throughout the pandemic and during sporting events. The results emphasize the importance of densifying urban seismic networks and of tracking human activities without the privacy concerns associated with mobile technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world experienced the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of 2019, beginning of 2020. Governments implemented strategies to contain it, most based on lockdowns. Mexico was not the exception. The lockdown was initiated in March 2020 and with it, a reduction on the seismic noise level was witnessed by the seismic stations of the national and the Valley of Mexico networks. Stations located in municipalities with more than 50,000 people usually experience larger seismic noise levels at frequencies between 1 to 5 Hz, associated with human activity. The largest noise levels are recorded in Mexico City, with the largest population in the country. The largest drop was observed in Hermosillo, Sonora, however, it was also the city with the fastest return to activities, which seems to correlate with a quick increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases. Mexico initiated a traffic-light system to modulate the re-opening of economic activities for each state. Therefore, since 1 June, noise levels reflect, in general, the colour of the state traffic light. Furthermore, the reduction in the noise level at seismic stations has allowed identification of smaller earthquakes without signal processing. Also, people in cities have perceived smaller or distant quakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismometers have detected the social response to lockdown measures implemented following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in cities around the world. This long-lasting lockdown has been a particular challenge in countries such as Mexico, where the informal economy constitutes most of the working population. This context motivated the monitoring of the mobility of populations throughout the various phases of lockdown measures, independently from people's access to the internet and mobile technologies. Here we use the variation of anthropogenic seismic noise in the city of Querétaro (central Mexico) recorded by a network of low-cost Raspberry Shake seismic stations to study the spatial and temporal variation of human activity in the city throughout the pandemic and during sportive events. The results emphasize the importance of densifying urban seismic networks and tracking human activities without the privacy concerns associated with mobile technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]