Metallica's "Enter Sandman" causes seismic activity at Virginia Tech show
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When Metallica performed at Virginia Tech's stadium for the first time ever on Wednesday, the ground shook — twice.
The first was when Metallica took the stage and teased the intro to "Enter Sandman," a song that's defined the Hokies' team entrance — named one of the best in college football — for 25 years.
- The second was when they actually played the song and over 60,000 fans jumped in unison, as is school tradition.
Zoom in: The Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory, located a mile from the stadium, measured the spikes in seismic activity Wednesday night.
- Martin Chapman, director of VTSO, tells Axios the ground motion was comparable to a "tiny natural earthquake" of roughly magnitude 1 or smaller.
- Chapman also notes crowd noise isn't referred to as an earthquake because it's not a "natural faulting event."
Yes, but: While it technically didn't count as a quake, Virginia Tech already has shirts you can buy that say "Blacksburg Earthquake, the night the Earth shook" with a shot of the seismograph.
- And people are dubbing it the "Metallica Quake" on social media.
Fun fact: It's not the first time a seismograph has detected activity at Lane Stadium when "Enter Sandman" played.
- Per Hokie Sports, it happened in 2011, 2015 and 2021.
- It's just the first time it's happened in Virginia because of a heavy metal band.