MEDIA, Pa. — A viral tweet claiming home runs hit by the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series registered on a seismometer has been debunked.
The tweet boasts home runs by Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm caused such an uproar that the noise and shaking were recorded by Penn State Brandywine's seismometer.
However, Dr. Laura Guertin, professor of earth sciences at Penn State Brandywine, set the record straight.
"Certainly we have a Phillies red wave going on right now. Unfortunately, we do not have a seismic wave going on," she said.
Dr. Guertin says the photo that went viral was not from PSU.
"I'm not sure where that one came [from]. Were there major earthquakes that occurred in the past 24 hours? Absolutely," she explained. "But unfortunately at the time of the World Series, we did not have a major earthquake."
Dr. Guertin explains that even if a seismometer is placed inside a rocking sports stadium like Citizens Bank Park, it could pick up some of the energy and vibrations. But it most likely would not ever read higher than a magnitude 1.
She said that sometimes, much more mundane "human noises" such as traffic and construction can also be responsible for blips that pop up on a seismograph.
"Large trucks, construction noise, etc., all have the ability to get picked up by local seismometers," she said.
The professor went on to say that the distance of the South Philadelphia stadium from the Middletown Township, Delaware County campus also makes it unlikely the PSU seismometer was picking up readings from the game.
"To be sure, I double-checked with one of my geoscience colleagues who specializes in seismology at the Penn State University Park campus this morning, and we are in agreement that with the stadium 20 miles away from my campus and the timing of these quick spikes in our seismometer record at Brandywine, this was not caused by our amazing Phillies fans," Dr. Guertin continued.
Sorry, Phillies fans—last night's game wasn't quite earth-shattering.