RENTON — Marshawn Lynch didn’t just shake would-be tacklers Saturday, he shook the earth.
Well, indirectly anyway.
The sellout crowd at Qwest Field was so loud during Lynch’s 67-yard touchdown run in Seattle’s 41-36 win over New Orleans, it actually registered on a nearby seismogra
ph.
“I classify it as a 12th-man earthquake,” said Bill Steele, the director of information services for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. “If it shakes the ground, it’s an earthquake, but it’s not easily comparable to a fault breaking as far as assigning a magnitude to it.”
Sensors registered a seismic event at the exact time of Lynch’s run, with the peak activity occurring right as Lynch crossed the goal line. No other seismographs in the Seattle registered area other than the one located just outside Qwest Field. John Vidale, the director of the PNSN, was watching on TV and noticed the shaking cameras during the run, which led to the discovery of the Lynch-quake.
“All of that energy and noise is pumping energy into the ground, and that’s what was detected by our seismograph nearby,” Steele said.
And two days after the run, Lynch’s teammates are still impressed.
“I think I actually stopped like five times during that play, ‘Oh it’s over. Oh no, it’s not over. Oh it’s over. Oh no, it’s not over,’ quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “And then it was just sheer adrenaline, excitement and it was just crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s pretty neat.”
Injury update
Carroll sounded encouraged about the health of his team coming out of Saturday’s game in which the only two injuries were linebacker Lofa Tatupu (concussion) and Ben Obomanu (shoulder).
“We’re fairly healthy coming out of this thing,” Carroll said. “Lofa got hit in the head, he responded very well today, very encouraged by his turnaround from yesterday to today. Ben Obomanu really was on the field with a dislocated shoulder and by the next series was back in there and catching passes, so that was a phenomenal recovery. We’re hoping that he’s going to make a good recovery and practice this week. So I think both those guys will practice before the end of the week. Other than that we’re in pretty good shape, just bangs and bumps and we’ll be ready to go with pretty much a full crew come Sunday.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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