Million-child jump in Britain fails to set seismometers swinging

LONDON (AP) -- What is the sound of a million people jumping?

Not a lot, according to scientists.

Seismologists said Saturday that an experiment in which more than 1 million children jumped up and down simultaneously in the hope of triggering an earthquake had produced scarcely a tremor.

Children at London's Science Museum and at 5,000 schools around Britain jumped up and down for one minute at 11 a.m. Friday.

Scientists predicted that the jump would release 2 billion joules of energy -- the same amount generated by an earthquake measuring 3 on the Richter scale. That is not large enough to be easily felt, but big enough to be monitored.

"We live in a dynamic planet, earthquakes are happening all the time all over the place. We just don't recognize it," said seismologist Murray McGowan.

But the results of the experiment did not appear to be earth-shattering.

Early reports indicated the jump had left "measurable traces" on seismometers at the jump sites, organizers said, while the British Geological Survey was investigating a "small trace" in Cornwall. Organizers said it would take two weeks to monitor all the data.