Anyone familiar with the Seattle Seahawks over the last several years is familiar with the term, “Beast Quake”, coined after the legendary touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch against the New Orleans Saints on January 8th, 2011. The crowd reaction registered on a sensing device located across the street from the stadium. The event registered just enough to be little more than a blip on the sensor, but none-the-less, it was registered with a duration of approximately one minute which can be seen at this PNSN link: http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/01/07/how-the-beast-quake-is-helping-scientists-track-real-earthquakes/.
This last week, Kam Chancellor intercepted a pass from Panther’s QB Cam Newton on the Seattle ten yard line for a ninety yard pick six, resulting in a similar, yet not-quite-as-intense seismic registering of the crowds reaction.
Since the legendary run by Marshawn Lynch, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) has installed three more sensors, all three of which are located within Quest Field itself, and are more sensitive than the unit located across the street that recorded Lynch’s famous run.
This is actually not the first time that a crowds reaction to an athletic event registered on a seismic sensor. In 2006, sensors in Cameroon registered a series of seismic events over the course of several days. Scientists took a while before they finally connected the proverbial dots – the seismic events correlated with goals scored by the Cameroon national soccer team during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
The power of the enthusiastic human spirit – it’s earth moving!