A new modelling approach shows how the Earth's hidden vibrations may drive global weather dynamics and atmospheric pressure variations, hinting that the planet's own beat could be imprinted on our climate. The atmospheric rotational patterns of the mean sea level pressure, in connection to the development of powerful storms, are shown to be caused by Earth's rotational elastic dynamics and earthquake-induced oscillations. These seismic excitations are discussed in relation to storm formation and the global atmospheric patterns of high-pressure regions. Introduction. The years 2024-2025 were marked by a series of extreme seismic events and unusually high variations of mean sea pressure level -from as low as 921 hPa to as high as 1060 hPa, which was similar to the years 1883-1884, with one of the largest eruptions of Krakatoa in 1883, and the lowest ever recorded mean sea level pressure in the British Isles of 926 hPa in January of 1884, as described in the 1884 and 1930 Nature articles 1,2 . Recent research 3,4,5 reveals that our planet undergoes elastic oscillations 3 , resonating like an immense gyroscope. The natural vibrations of the Earth ripple through the tectonic plate boundaries and echo in the atmosphere 6 , revealing hidden connections between the Earth's elastic dynamics and changing weather patterns. By analysing the natural resonances, scientists can uncover how the planet's movement may align with atmospheric pressure variations, providing a new perspective on the interconnected rhythms of the Earth and sky. Numerical models tie the Earth's vibrations to real-world atmospheric variability, suggesting that the planet's 'heartbeat' may be felt both beneath our feet and above our heads.
A striking characteristic of planetary atmospheres in the polar regions is the polygonallike structures of fast-moving air high in the atmosphere, shaped by the combined effects of the planet's rotation and gravity. As shown in Fig. 1(a), Saturn's North Pole hosts a persistent hexagonal jet stream, first detected by Voyager and later confirmed by Cassini NASA probes. A similar phenomenon appears on Earth in the form of an approximate pentagonal jet-stream pattern at the South Pole as illustrated in Fig. 1(b). These polygonal formations highlight how physical mechanisms, such as gyroscopic effects and gravitational forces, can produce highly ordered atmospheric structures.
A new perspective is presented here, following the idea that atmospheric patterns may also be influenced by the Earth’s elastic vibrations 6 . By examining mean sea-level pressure variations during recent extreme events, the analysis reveals how Earth’s hidden vibrational modes may couple with the atmosphere to shape large-scale weather dynamics. How Earth’s rotation shapes its vibrations. It is known that the Earth vibrates with natural oscillations governed by elasticity, fluid dynamics and gravity 7,8 . For a nonrotating planet, these vibrations settle into the familiar toroidal and spheroidal modes. But once rotation is taken into account, the Coriolis effect transforms the picture: the vibration modes engage a coupled oscillatory system with striking new patterns that would not exist in a non-rotating planet. These rotational effects shift the eigenfrequencies and change eigenmodes, leading to phenomena such as gyroscopic frequency splitting and the Chandler wobble 9 . The study 3 explores different classes of vibrations of rotating elastic bodies, with physical scales that approximate Earth itself. The results revealed approximately polyhedral vibration modes in a spinning Earthlike ball, uncovering hidden resonances driven by the planet’s spin.
At low frequencies, the rotating elastic ball reveals distinct bands that run parallel to the equator 3,4,5 . These patterns emerge since rotation induces anisotropy through the Coriolis effect, structuring the displacement field of the planet. The bands mark regions of relatively low-amplitude elastic motions, separated by boundaries where oscillations intensify. The results of the numerical computations are shown in Fig. 2 for two different vibration frequencies. On Earth, comparable banded structures appear in atmospheric circulation patterns, known as the Hadley, Ferrel and Polar cells that organise global weather systems into repeating latitudinal patterns. At certain frequencies, the rotating elastic ball’s vibrations may also resemble icosahedral or dodecahedral structures illustrated in Fig. 3, with pentagonal or triangular patterns across the poles and equatorial regions. These polyhedral eigenmodes depend on both the rotational speed and material properties of the rotating body. The study of wave phenomena on spherical geometries reveals that the Earth’s rotation results in elastic vibrations with remarkable patterns. Computations in Fig. 3 show striking vibration modes with two-fold, three-fold and five-fold rotational symmetries, connected to global high-pressure regions experienced during highintensity storms and earthquakes 3 . Just as storms and high-pressure regions organise into repeating patterns around the globe, the planet’s vibrations exhibit rotational twofold, three-fold or five-fold patterns, establishing the coupling between Earth’s elastic dynamics and atmospheric variability.
Earth’s vibrations echoing in the atmosphere: recent global storms and pressure variations. Between October 2024 and November 2025, clusters of seismic activity across the globe occurred alongside extraordinary atmospheric disturbances and variations in pressure levels. The sequence of recent events, including typhoon Ragasa, storms Éowyn, Amy, Floris and Benjamin, and the resulting five-fold rotational patterns of high Mean Sea Level Pressure reveal how Earth’s rotational dynamics, elastic vibrations and atmospheric pressure gradients combine to produce large-scale weather systems.
Typhoon Ragasa (17-25 September 2025) hit the Philippines, Taiwan and China with maximum recorded winds reaching 270 km/h and extreme pressure variations. There was no advance warning. However, there was a series of significant seismic events during 17-19 September 2025, with the strongest earthquake of Mag 7.8 in Kamchatka on 18 September 2025. According to the meteorological data, shown in Fig. 4, a fivefold rotational pattern of high-pressure regions was formed in the atmosphere. On 22 nd September 2025, the recorded mean sea level pressure was 928 hPa in the vicinity of the Philippines as shown in Fig. 4(b), which also shows the approximate pentagonal high-pressure structure. In particular, Fig. 4(c) shows that the vortex signifying Ragasa was formed as a result of the interaction between two closely located
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