Episode 14 - Dr Paula Koelemeijer

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Episode 14 - Dr Paula Koelemeijer, Global Seismologist

How the Lockdown has Affected Seismology

Dr Paula Koelemeijer

Callam and Jim meet Dr Paula Koelemeijer, Global Seismologist and Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer at Royal Holloway University of London. Paula studies the seismic activity of the Earth thousands of kilometres below the surface, but recent events much closer to home have had a surprising positive effect on her work.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and much of the world being in lockdown, Seismologists have been getting far clearer signals from within the Earth, because of less disruption from on top of it. Known as Anthropogenic Noise, the racket that humans make by working, travelling and moving around makes the work of those studying the Earth very difficult. With less noise comes significantly clearer signals - from which we can filter out the noise when it eventually returns.

Oh, and we also talk about the earthquakes caused by footballer Lionel Messi scoring, quakes on the Moon and Mars, using tremors to stop elephant poaching, and tracking the shakes caused by Rolling Stones concerts. It really is a wide conversation, this one!

You can find Paula on Twitter @seismo_koel

Photo by Andrew Buchanan on Unsplash

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