At a University of Utah football game, you may feel the stadium shake or rumble during a third-down defensive play while Utah’s MUSS performs its patented “third-down jump” or after a touchdown. Geoscientists at the U. are now measuring how much energy is being put in the ground during these big-play events with seismometers, and even live-tweeting the measurements during games.
Before last week’s win against the Florida Gators, Utah seismologist Jamie Farrell installed a seismometer at Rice-Eccles Stadium to record the earth-shaking movements created by fans’ reactions to what they were viewing.
In a news release, Farrell explained that during games they are “going to try to convert the amount of energy that gets released either over an entire game or if there’s a big event, where it shakes a lot, and try to convert that into equivalent magnitude, how much energy is put into the ground.” This allows them to compare events, like touchdowns, third-down stomps, or even the team running into the stadium.
During the game, Farrell and his associates live-tweeted seismic data from the U of U Seismograph Stations’ official account, @UUSSquake on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
.@Rice_Eccles was earth shaking last night. Literally.
Our scientists with @UUSSquake measured the seismic impact of @Utah_Football and our legendary fans during the home opener. #GoUtes
