Using thunderquakes to X-ray Earth – a new study shows urban seismology in action

As lightning lights up apartment buildings, the thunder creates useful vibrations. Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images

When lightning strikes, it superheats the air around it and creates a shock wave that we hear as thunder. But thunder doesn’t just travel through the atmosphere to our ears.

When that energy reaches the ground, some of it is converted into seismic waves that ripple through the soil and rock beneath. The resulting vibrations are known as “thunderquakes.”