COLUMBUS – It’s official: Curtis Samuel’s game-winning touchdown in double overtime Nov. 26 against Michigan registered as a 5.79 on a newly created FanQuake Magnitude Scale, the biggest of the 2016 season.
Researchers from Ohio State, Miami University and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources have been using seismometers to measure the activity created in Ohio Stadium as fans jump up and down during games.
The scale converts shaking from fans into the perceived magnitude of a naturally occurring earthquake, centered about six miles below the stadium.
A 5.79 on the Richter scale used to measure actual earthquakes is enough to cause damage to weakly constructed buildings, but almost none to those which are well-built.
The shaking, rattling and rolling built in intensity from the opening kickoff’s 5.27 — already more than the previous record fan quake — as fans bounced up and down in unison to the White Stripes’ song “Seven Nation Army” to 5.45 during Malik Hooker’s second-quarter interception, 5.65 during Jerome Baker’s third-quarter interception and Mike Weber’s subsequent touchdown, 5.70 during J.T. Barrett’s first overtime touchdown, and, finally, Samuel’s 5.79-magnitude winning TD.
It didn’t hurt that the Michigan game attracted 110,045 fans, the largest in the stadium’s 96-year history.
The effort to measure “fan quakes” is a collaboration among researchers who will use the results to teach students important lessons in seismology, and raise earthquake awareness in general.