Metallica caused a mini earthquake at their gig in Virginia recently, after causing some major noise along with the crowd during ‘Enter Sandman.’
Metallica performed at Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium last week - a venue that holds special meaning for the band, as it’s where the Virginia Tech Hokies American football team famously has entered to ‘Enter Sandman’ for the last 25 years.
“I think we’re missing something… let’s go Hokies!” James Hetfield exclaimed, before the band ripped into the iconic 1991 song to close out their 16-song-set.
Turns out, the chants and jumping of the crowd combined with the loud music were strong enough to “create a noticeable spike on the seismograph equivalent to a ‘small’ but prolonged earthquake,” according to Rolling Stone.
Videos posted online show the crowd of 60,000 concert-goers jumping in unison, causing a seismograph to set off, which was being recorded by The Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory (VTSO) from about a kilometer away.
"The synchronous movement of the fans was so impressive that even the ground shook from their noise. Such events are very rare and once again demonstrated the uniqueness and uniqueness of this concert," the head of VTSO Martin Chapman explained.
While the graph recorded shaking of the ground, the earthquake was less than 1.0 on the Richter scale so was not assigned an official rating and didn’t pose a threat. Either way, fans have dubbed it the ‘Metallica Quake.’
While it may not have registered as an official quake, when 65,000 fans shake the earth to Enter Sandman, that’s a pretty epic thing to be a part of.
Metallica are headed to New Zealand this November. Tickets are sold out, but keep The Rock loud and keep your eyes peeled on our socials, and who knows, you could just win some tickets.
