Last weekend, a Taylor Swift concert shook the ground so hard, a nearby seismometer registered an earthquake of roughly a magnitude of 2.3, seismologists said.
“It’s certainly the biggest concert we’ve had in a while,” said Mouse Reusch, a seismologist at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, which monitors earthquake activity in the Pacific Northwest. “We’re talking about 70,000 people and all the music and paraphernalia associated with the concert.”
The supposed “Swift-Quake” recorded a maximum ground acceleration of about 0.011 meters per second squared, said Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University. This meant that the ground shook about 0.011 meters every second during the concert. In an article for the New York Times, Chang Che writes, “Seismologists use acceleration to measure ground vibrations, which are then converted to the more conventional Richter scale, the common measurement for earthquakes.”
According to The New York Times, the seismometers can detect vibrations of all kinds — from cow stampedes to car traffic — but the magnitude of the “Swift Quake” has made some people associate it with the 2011 “Beast Quake”. That quake was triggered when Seattle Seahawk fans bellowed in celebration after a last-minute touchdown by Marshawn Lynch, who was also known as “Beast Mode”. The recorded magnitude of the “Beast Quake” was 2.0.
The readings sustained throughout both of Swift’s concert in Seattle. The shaking of the ground was more than “twice as hard” as the Beast Quake, Caplan-Auerbach said. While this was only 0.3 magnitude greater than the quake in 2011, it’s double the difference under the Richter scale, which is logarithmic.
The most likely cause was the combination of music from her concert and her fans — who call themselves “Swifties” — dancing in sync with it, said experts. Taylor Swift is currently four months into her Eras tour, a sold-out 52-date national tour drawing huge crowds of Swifties to hear her songs across her 10-album career.
The two concerts documented a near-identical reading on the seismometer, Reusch said, suggesting the sets were nearly identical as well. “That was surprising to me, that we’re able to see something so coherent,” she said. “One was offset by about 26 minutes because it was late.”
It was not clear which songs caused the most shaking. Besides “Shake It Off,” the set list included “Love Story,” “Bad Blood,” and “Anti-Hero,” all of them guaranteed to have Swifties “shake it off”.
On Sept. 14, Beyonce will be playing in Seattle as well. “I’ll be looking at that for sure,” Caplan-Auerbach said. Reusch, however, was captured by the public attention. “Maybe there’s some young Swifties out there that will someday become seismologists or earth scientists. That would be a real happy ending,” she said.
“It’s certainly the biggest concert we’ve had in a while,” said Mouse Reusch, a seismologist at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, which monitors earthquake activity in the Pacific Northwest. “We’re talking about 70,000 people and all the music and paraphernalia associated with the concert.”
The supposed “Swift-Quake” recorded a maximum ground acceleration of about 0.011 meters per second squared, said Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University. This meant that the ground shook about 0.011 meters every second during the concert. In an article for the New York Times, Chang Che writes, “Seismologists use acceleration to measure ground vibrations, which are then converted to the more conventional Richter scale, the common measurement for earthquakes.”
According to The New York Times, the seismometers can detect vibrations of all kinds — from cow stampedes to car traffic — but the magnitude of the “Swift Quake” has made some people associate it with the 2011 “Beast Quake”. That quake was triggered when Seattle Seahawk fans bellowed in celebration after a last-minute touchdown by Marshawn Lynch, who was also known as “Beast Mode”. The recorded magnitude of the “Beast Quake” was 2.0.
The readings sustained throughout both of Swift’s concert in Seattle. The shaking of the ground was more than “twice as hard” as the Beast Quake, Caplan-Auerbach said. While this was only 0.3 magnitude greater than the quake in 2011, it’s double the difference under the Richter scale, which is logarithmic.
The most likely cause was the combination of music from her concert and her fans — who call themselves “Swifties” — dancing in sync with it, said experts. Taylor Swift is currently four months into her Eras tour, a sold-out 52-date national tour drawing huge crowds of Swifties to hear her songs across her 10-album career.
The two concerts documented a near-identical reading on the seismometer, Reusch said, suggesting the sets were nearly identical as well. “That was surprising to me, that we’re able to see something so coherent,” she said. “One was offset by about 26 minutes because it was late.”
It was not clear which songs caused the most shaking. Besides “Shake It Off,” the set list included “Love Story,” “Bad Blood,” and “Anti-Hero,” all of them guaranteed to have Swifties “shake it off”.
On Sept. 14, Beyonce will be playing in Seattle as well. “I’ll be looking at that for sure,” Caplan-Auerbach said. Reusch, however, was captured by the public attention. “Maybe there’s some young Swifties out there that will someday become seismologists or earth scientists. That would be a real happy ending,” she said.