U.S. football celebrations register as minor earthquakes

Celebrations by Seattle football fans in a Monday night game against the New Orleans Saints were so thunderous that they registered as minor earthquakes on a nearby seismometer, a state university professor said. The most intense rumble came after Seahawks’ defensive end Michael Bennett recovered a fumble by New Orleans’ quarterback Drew Brees in the first quarter and ran it back for a touchdown, said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington. The cheering and foot-stamping at CenturyLink Field was picked up by a seismometer used by the network, which monitors ground motion in Washington and Oregon.