For a few minutes during the eclipse, cities went silent—even underground.
During the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, cities across the United States and Canada experienced a noticeable drop in ground vibrations. New research presented at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting shows that urban areas within the “path of totality” briefly became quieter at a seismic level as the Moon completely covered the Sun.
Benjamin Fernando, a seismologist and planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University, witnessed the moment firsthand in an Ohio city. “And I noticed that all of a sudden everything went really quiet,” he said. “So I was curious as to whether that was going to be replicated in the seismic data.”
How Human Activity Creates Seismic Noise
Much of the background shaking detected by seismic instruments comes from people. Construction and mining, busy roads, and large gatherings like concerts or sporting events all generate small vibrations that travel through the ground.
To understand how the eclipse affected this activity, Fernando analyzed data from several hundred seismic stations across April 2024. The results revealed a consistent pattern tied to the timing of the eclipse.
A Distinct Pattern During Totality
In cities along the path of totality, seismic noise rose slightly just before the eclipse reached its peak. As the Sun became fully blocked, those vibrations dropped sharply. After totality ended, activity resumed and noise levels climbed again, even reaching slightly higher than the monthly average.
This effect was only observed in urban areas directly within the path of totality. Rural regions did not show the same change, and neither did cities outside the path. “For example, in New York it was 97% totality, but nothing changed,” Fernando noted.
A Shared Event That Paused Daily Life
The findings suggest the eclipse was powerful enough to briefly interrupt normal routines in cities where it was fully visible. With fewer cars on the road and people stepping away from daily activities, the usual human-driven vibrations dropped enough to be clearly detected.
A similar reduction in seismic noise occurred during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, when human activity slowed dramatically. During that period, anthropogenic seismic noise fell by about 50% between March and May.
No Evidence Linking Eclipses to Earthquakes
The study also addresses a common misconception. Some have suggested that the alignment of the sun, moon and Earth during an eclipse could trigger earthquakes. However, the data does not support that idea.
“Folks, for whatever reason, sometimes push the narrative that eclipses cause earthquakes,” Fernando said. “That’s definitely not the case, and this is another demonstration of that.”
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