Seismic recordings at NFC Championship near original Beast Quake levels
Jan 22, 2014, 9:47 AM | Updated: 10:15 am
A hit by Seattle Seahawks' Cliff Avril during the second half of the NFL football NFC Championship game Sunday was one of a few plays in the second half that registered on seismic recordings. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
The 12th Man was shaking things up at CenturyLink Field on Sunday.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network reports the late fumble recovery and last-minute interception led to near-record levels of crowd rumbles from Seahawks fans.
“We sure rocked the second half,” Dr. Bill Steele, with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, tells KIRO Radio’s Morning News. “The first half was fairly quiet but the second half there was of course those series of very fortunate events including Lynch’s touchdown and the Cliff Avril force-fumble that really registered high on the Hawk-o-meter.”
The biggest Seahawks fan quake remains the original Beast Quake recorded during Marshawn Lynch’s legendary run in the 2011 playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.
Steele says they’re trying to work out a new Beast-Quake magnitude scale, as measuring fan rumbles is a bit different than measuring actual earthquakes.
“Earthquakes originate from a fault shifting down in the rocks beneath the surface of the ground and this is generated by fans jumping up and down and putting energy in the stadium.”
So what they do to compare them is take a look back at all the rumbles recorded at the stadium site thus far, which date back to the Kingdome era of play, says Steele.
From all their recordings, one thing they do know is that CenturyLink might be one of the best structures around to withstand a real earthquake.
“It’s a strong stadium and we’re getting very, very tiny deflections up even on the third deck, so it seems to be very well designed for seismic activity.”
“That’s good to hear because it’s going to get a lot of exercise over the next few years,” says KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.
