Video: Ohio Stadium Registers a 5.79 on the FanQuake Scale After Curtis Samuel's Game-Winning Touchdown Against Michigan

By D.J. Byrnes on November 28, 2016 at 9:48 am
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Ohio State asked its fans to bring their best against Michigan last Saturday, and Buckeye fans delivered in spades.

But how do we know this, outside of anecdotal evidence? For that, we'd have to turn to the Richter magnitude scale and a seismograph. 

Thanks to FanQuakes, a cooperative effort between Miami University and Ohio State, we now have those exact measurements for key parts of the game. The loudest moment came not when Jim Harbaugh drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but when Curtis Samuel daggered Michigan in double overtime:

Here's how Dr. Brudzinski described the rating to Eleven Warriors:

It's probably important to clarify that the fans are not actually generating the same amount of physical energy as a Richter magnitude 5.2 earthquake.  The fans are generating shaking energy that is equivalent to what an earthquake would generate if it happened at a typical depth (10 kilometers) below the stadium, and if it was spread out over a couple minutes.  We're just trying help people associate shaking they feel in the stadium to the shaking that happens when an earthquake occurs.

Though it's not apples to apples, here's how big a 5.79 earthquake registers on the Richter scale, we turn to the most well-known scientific journal of our era, Wikipedia:

5.0-5.9: Can cause damage of varying severity to poorly constructed buildings. At most, none to slight damage to all other buildings. Felt by everyone. 

You know who felt that most of all? Michigan. 

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