I guess they call it rock and roll for a reason. In this case, it's literal. You probably never imagined that a rock concert, along with thousands of giddy college students in the audience, could be so eardrum-vibratingly, foot-stompingly loud that they registered as a very small earthquake. It actually happened on Wednesday night at Virginia Tech, per nypost.com. Per the outlet, "...[T]he estimated 60,000-strong crowd's collective energy remarkably culminated in unusual seismic readings."
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The Rambunctious Virginia Tech Crowd Plus Metallica Made The Earth Shake
Wow, that sure is loud! This was not just someone's imagination. The Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory (VTSO) noted ground tremors from the concert and concert-goers. By the way, the performers happened to be the legendary heavy metal band Metallica and the venue was the school's Lane Stadium.
The zenith of the cacophony came when the legendary band swung into their song, "Enter Sandman." (Playing that tune is a familiar rite at football games at the school, accompanied by raucousness from the attending huge throng.) That finding was affirmed by Martin Chapman, VTSO director. The Observatory's seismograph "clearly registered the ground motion produced by the enthusiastic audience."
Some were delighted with the high-decibel event. Virginia Tech Athletics had a message for the band that said, ""Thanks for jumping with us, Metallica! Come back anytime."
The Noise And Rumbles From The Concert Were Not A Hazard To Anyone
The So-Called 'Metallica Quake' Was An Intriguing Phenomenon
Even though the significant sound level and earth-rumbling effects of the concert were notable, they were actually scientifically very minor, according to the FOX Forecast Center. That was backed up by Chapman, the VTSO director. He said per the outlet, "The magnitude would have been less than 1.0. Too small to be felt even a mile away." The VTSO seismograph is located about a mile from the stadium.
About Metallica
The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. In an essay on the Hall's web site, Metallica is described as "A thrashing Bay Area quartet fond of breakneck-speed riffs glinting with menace and aggression...the group are responsible for some of the most brutal, enduring rock & roll albums of the '80s and '90s."
