SEATTLE — The 12s will be bringing the energy and excitement to Lumen Field on Saturday as the Seahawks take on the San Francisco 49ers.
Will it be enough to trigger a small earthquake?
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) has installed six seismic sensors inside the stadium to measure fan-generated ground motion.
“We have Lumen Field ‘wired up’ and we can record exactly how the excitement of the crowd leads to shaking of the ground, much like an earthquake does,” said PNSN Director Harold Tobin at the University of Washington. “We expect the massive crowd of 12s to generate measurable seismic energy. It’s a fun way to show the world exactly how much, in a scientific way, and to learn something about the seismic waves in the process.”
PNSN will stream results through real-time seismograms available on pnsn.org during the game and share them through PNSN’s social media channels.
These records will show how fan excitement translates into measurable seismic signals.
The project builds on previous in-stadium deployments during Seahawks playoff games in 2014, 2015, & 2017, and the legendary Beast Quake run by Marshawn Lynch in 2011.