This Game is Going to Rock: Geologists to Study Ohio State - Michigan Game

COLUMBUS, OH — Ohio Stadium in Columbus has a capacity of 104,944 and at Saturday's Ohio State-Michigan game, geologists will be measuring something called the "FanQuakes Magnitude Scale" coming from from the collective cheering from the fans.

Ohio State and Miami University professors and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources created the measurement tool to monitor naturally occurring earthquakes. Seismic activity (aka cheering) will be measured by sensors placed around the stadium.

cbsnews.com reports that the biggest quake this season came after a touchdown catch made by Curtis Samuel in the second half against Nebraska resulting in a 5.2 FanQuake Magnitude rating lasting for more than two minutes.

Saturday's Big 10 matchup pitting the number 2 ranked Buckeyes against the number 3 ranked Wolverines is expected to break the FanQuake Magnitude record.

Some geology concepts can be difficult to understand and this project was designed to help students according to a statement from Ohio State.

“We’ll feature the measurements in classes, so that undergraduates can engage with real-world data and connect it to an experience many of them have had in person,” said project leader Derek Sawyer, assistant professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. “At a more advanced level, we’ll use the data to teach data reduction and collection as well as wave propagation, earthquakes and the local geology.”

Researchers say they have been surprised by the effects of music from Ohio State’s marching band.

“We expected that the most exciting plays would make the biggest fan quakes, and that’s true,” Miami University geologist Michael Brudzinski said in a statement. “But sometimes the fan quakes grow even larger after the play is done, because the music starts. The music helps the fans to jump in unison, which leads to even stronger shaking of the stands.”

Jeffrey Fox, a seismologist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said fan quakes present a good opportunity to get people thinking about earthquake hazards in general.

‘’As more and more people move to and live in earthquake-prone areas, they should be aware of seismic risk,” Fox said. “Even in areas such as Ohio, where the risk is low, it’s not zero.”

See also:

• Ohio State Buckeyes vs Michigan Wolverines: Everything You Need To Know [VIDEO]
• Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh Goes Deep, But Did He Eat A Booger?
• Just Beat Michigan, Baby
• Buckeye Fans Get BOGO Burritos at Chipotle for Ohio State-Michigan Game Day

Photo by Rick Uldricks/Patch