Taylor Swift fans caused an earthquake at her Seattle concert

2023-07-28 23:46

Taylor Swift has already broken a number of records this year with her Eras Tour - and now her shows in Seattle caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake. For two nights (22 and 23 July), the 33-year-old pop star performed to a record-breaking 144,000 fans at Lumen Field, in the Emerald City in what has now been described as the "Swift Quake." This has been compared to the “Beast Quake," back in 2011 when Seattle Seahawks fans reacted to Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch's touchdown. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, who is a geology professor at Western Washington University noticed someone comparing the two events on a Facebook group and decided to investigate further. “I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” Caplan-Auerbach told CNN. “If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.” Seismographs are instruments used to record the motion of the ground, When looking at the difference in magnitude, the "Beast Quake" was 2.0, while the "Swift Quake" was just higher at 2.3. An earthquake of this scale is minor, it can shake the ground enough for people to notice but damage is normally limited to objects falling off shelves, according to New Scientist. Though Caplan-Auerbach noted a sizable difference between the "Beast Quake" and "Swift Quake" in terms of shaking. "The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake’. It absolutely doubled it," the seismologist told the same publication. But in a tweet, Caplan-Auerbach considered other factors that come into play such as the music, speakers and sound system contributing to the seismic activity, not just the fans. While a reaction to a touchdown lasts for seconds, the seismologist detailed how for Swift's concerts she "collected about 10 hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior." Swift clearly enjoyed the atmosphere at the weekend as she took to Instagram and wrote: "Seattle that was genuinely one of my favorite weekends ever. Thank you for everything. All the cheering, screaming, jumping, dancing, singing at the top of your lungs." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Taylor Swift has already broken a number of records this year with her Eras Tour - and now her shows in Seattle caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.

For two nights (22 and 23 July), the 33-year-old pop star performed to a record-breaking 144,000 fans at Lumen Field, in the Emerald City in what has now been described as the "Swift Quake."

This has been compared to the “Beast Quake," back in 2011 when Seattle Seahawks fans reacted to Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch's touchdown.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, who is a geology professor at Western Washington University noticed someone comparing the two events on a Facebook group and decided to investigate further.

“I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” Caplan-Auerbach told CNN.

“If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”

Seismographs are instruments used to record the motion of the ground,

When looking at the difference in magnitude, the "Beast Quake" was 2.0, while the "Swift Quake" was just higher at 2.3.

An earthquake of this scale is minor, it can shake the ground enough for people to notice but damage is normally limited to objects falling off shelves, according to New Scientist.

Though Caplan-Auerbach noted a sizable difference between the "Beast Quake" and "Swift Quake" in terms of shaking.

"The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake’. It absolutely doubled it," the seismologist told the same publication.

But in a tweet, Caplan-Auerbach considered other factors that come into play such as the music, speakers and sound system contributing to the seismic activity, not just the fans.

While a reaction to a touchdown lasts for seconds, the seismologist detailed how for Swift's concerts she "collected about 10 hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior."

Swift clearly enjoyed the atmosphere at the weekend as she took to Instagram and wrote:

"Seattle that was genuinely one of my favorite weekends ever. Thank you for everything. All the cheering, screaming, jumping, dancing, singing at the top of your lungs."

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.