Fans of the Seattle Seahawks cause minor earthquake celebrating touchdown

 
Kenneth Elliott13 January 2014

Fans of the Seattle Seahawks celebrated Marshawn Lynch’s touchdown so enthusiastically that they caused a minor earthquake during the NFL play-off game against the New Orleans Saints at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.

Seismologists believe the fans shook the ground under their stadium so much that it caused a second fan-generated earthquake in the city, even more significant than the one dubbed the ‘beast quake’, also sparked by a Lynch touchdown run three years ago, and also against New Orleans in a play-off game.

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), at the University of Washington, posted graphs of the quake during the game on Twitter and Facebook accounts and it measured two on the scale compared to Lynch’s first earth-shaker, which measured between one and two.

Super Bowl favourites Seattle shook the Saints throughout with Lynch carrying the ball 28 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-15 victory in the NFC divisional play-off to set up a home Super Bowl ‘semi-final’ clash with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

The 49ers head for their third straight NFC Championship Game after a 23-10 win over the Carolina Panthers and the right to play in Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday February 2.

Quarterback Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos narrowly avoided repeating their play-off woe of last season to reach the AFC championship game with a 24-17 win over the San Diego Chargers.

The Broncos were comfortably in control for three-and-a-half quarters before Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers engineered a comeback and looked likely to mirror the Baltimore Ravens upset win at Denver a year ago. But Manning saw the Broncos home to send them to the AFC title game for the first time in eight seasons where they will host the New England Patriots on Sunday. That has set up a mouthwatering clash of the quarterback titans in 37-year-old Manning versus 36-year-old Tom Brady.

They meet for the 15th time with Brady leading the personal battle 10-4 which includes a 2-1 bias in the playoffs. Brady also leads 5-2 in Super Bowl appearances and 3-1 in Super Bowl rings.

The Patriots are one step away from this year’s Super Bowl thanks to a 43-22 win over the Indianapolis Colts but Brady threw just 25 times, with modest numbers of 13-for-25 and 198 yards and it was only the fourth time in his 25-game post-season career, going back to his first start in their first Super Bowl season in 2001, that he failed to throw a touchdown pass.

Channel 4 will air Super Bowl XLVIII live from New York/New Jersey on Sunday February 2, with play-off highlights tonight and each Monday throughout January and on 4oD (11pm).

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in