Aug. 24, 2011 at 8:47 AM ET
Almost immediately after a moderate earthquake shook up the East Coast yesterday, people rushed to Twitter — for news and humor. And in that process, they managed something notable: They tweeted more (per second) than they did when news of Osama bin Laden's death broke.
According to an initial statistic posted on the official @Twitter account, the earthquake tweets came in at a rate of 5,500 per second. The bin Laden news, on the other hand, peeked at 5,008 tweets per second (TPS).
To further put that into context, here are some other events which caused a high rate of tweets:
- 6,939: The current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.
- 5,530: The TPS peek rate during the Japanese earthquake and tsunami
- 4,064: The current TPS record for any sporting event, set during the 2011 Superbowl
- 3,966: The TPS peek rate during the Royal Wedding
- 3,283: The TPS rate when Japan beat Denmark in the World Cup
In case you're wondering, Twitter's also got details on the person that started the East Coast earthquake frenzy. According to the micro-blogging service, a user who goes by the name @JordnJnkieJuice was the first to tweet about the news.
Wonder if that fellow was among the 20,868 people who checked into the "Earthquakepocalypse 2011" on Foursquare.
Related stories:
- Twitter's new 'galleries' reveal your recent photos
- Program can identify your gender based on a single tweet
- Good news/bad news: Twitter's becoming Facebook-like
Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.