Taylor Swift fans were so rowdy at two concerts it was the equivalent of a 2.3-magnitude earthquake
Topics: News, Celebrity, Taylor Swift
Keryn Donnelly
Featured Image Credit: Mat Hayward/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management.
Topics: News, Celebrity, Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift fans shook, shook, shook it off so hard they caused an earthquake.
A 'Swift Quake', if you will.
According to seismologist and Western Washington University Professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, two nights of fans dancing at Swift’s Seattle Eras Tour caused seismic activity equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
The Swift Quake at Lumen Field last weekend was detected on the same local seismometer as 2011's 'Beast Quake'.
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The Beast Quake happened when Seattle Seahawks fans erupted after an impressive touchdown by running back Marshawn 'Beast Mode' Lynch during the play-offs.
Caplan-Auerbach told CNN when she saw the comparison in a Pacific Northwest earthquake group she moderates on Facebook, she immediately started to dig deeper into the data.
“Somebody posted and said 'Well, did the Taylor Swift concert make a Beast Quake?' And I was like 'Oh I am on that, that’s fun',” she told K5.
I guess I should show the data. Swifties > Seahawks fans.
— Jackie Caplan-Auerbach 🇺🇦 🌻 (@geophysichick) July 27, 2023
(except data from the concert may not be caused by the fans--it may be the sound system, so not really a fair comparison). pic.twitter.com/szwowOYQFi
She explained to CNN: “I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals.
“If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”
Caplan-Auerbach said the only difference was the timing as the Sunday show started later.
“I asked around and found out the Sunday show was delayed by about half an hour, so that adds up,” she said.
And, while the magnitude difference between Beast Quake and Swift Quake is only 0.3, the Swifties shook harder than the Seahawks fans.
“The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake’. It absolutely doubled it," Caplan-Auerbach said.
“The primary difference is the duration of shaking. Cheering after a touchdown lasts for a couple seconds, but eventually it dies down. It’s much more random than a concert.
"For Taylor Swift, I collected about 10 hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior. The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it.”
It sounds like the Swifties might need to... calm down.