September 16, 2023
The University of Utah Utes took on the Weber State University Wildcats in Salt Lake City on September 16, 2023. It was the final non-conference game for the Utes for the 2023 season. The Utes came into the game with a #12 ranking. During the 2023 season, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations installed a seismometer on the ground floor of the stadium to record ground shaking related to football games. Below is a summary of some recordings during the Weber State game.
Similar to the previous home game (Florida), the largest signal of the entire night was when the Utes came out of the tunnel to take the field. However, This signal was about three times smaller than during the Florida game two weeks earlier. This makes sense when looking at how many fewer people were in the stadium during this time.
The lack of interesting signals was the big story for the Weber State game. Again, this is primarily due to the fact that there were many less fans in the stadium. The Utes went on to win the game 31-7 to move to 3-0 on the season. The Utes scored 4 touchdowns (including one defensive touchdown) in the game and we ranked them from most ground shaking to least:
- Lander Barton 23 yard Pick Six with 4:36 left in the 3rd quarter.
- Jaylon Glover 2 yard TD run with 10:17 left in the 3rd quarter.
- Money Parks 13 yard TD reception with 5:00 left int he 2nd quarter.
- Nate Johnson 1 yard TD run with 8:35 left in the 1st quarter.
However, compared to the three touchdowns during the last home game (Florida), these are an order of magnitude (factor of 10) less in amplitude and are hard to see when plotted on the same scale.
Learn more about the UteQuake Project
*Note: UteQuakes are not real earthquakes, they are measurements of ground motion caused by fans in the stadium.
For questions, please email Jamie Farrell at jamie.farrell@ utah.edu