How a Shaking Stadium Is Helping Scientists Track Earthquakes

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 8, 2015 @11:17AM from the whole-lot-of-shaking-going-on dept.

vinces99 writes Researchers are installing three seismometers in Seattle's CenturyLink stadium to monitor shaking from Seahawks fans during Saturday's NFL playoff game. The new, faster data transmission will show crowd motion on the website before a touchdown shows up on the 10-second delayed TV broadcast. Researchers dub these "Early Earthquake Rowdiness Warnings." A guaranteed shaking and intense public interest gives the seismologists a unique opportunity to test new technology that gives seconds to minutes warning of a real earthquake.

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Re:Seconds to minutes of warning? by Sowelu · 2015-01-08 12:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

The vibrations don't travel instantly through the surrounding geology, so if you know instantly when a quake happens at the epicenter, you can still give meaningful warning to people in outlying areas. Also (as a non-geologist), I suppose there's probably patterns that show up before the biggest part of the quake...if you start feeling what seems like a 3.0, but your phone can alarm with "This is going to get up to an 8.0 in twenty seconds", it could save your life.