At Taylor Swift’s Seattle concert, her fans cheered so hard that they shook the earth, creating a small earthquake.
The earthquake itself had a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter Scale, and seismologists say that the concert was one of the largest performances that they have detected in a long time.
Pacific Northwest Seismic Network seismologist Mouse Reusch says, “It’s certainly the biggest concert we’ve had in a while…We’re talking about 70,000 people and all the music and paraphernalia associated with the concert.”
According to Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University, this “Swift Quake” recorded a maximum ground acceleration of 0.011 meters per second squared.
Scientists then converted the information from the seismometer into the Richter scale measure (the measurement unit for earthquakes). Through this process, they have detected that the earthquake from Swift’s concert has reached a comparable size to the 2011 “Beast Quake,” which had a magnitude close to 2.0.
The Richter scale showed that the readings of the concert were almost “twice as hard” (said by Caplan-Auerbach) as the 2011 quake. This new result is most likely caused by the syncing of the Swifties (Taylor Swift’s fans) dancing and the music coming from the sound system of the show.
The mega-popstar is now four months into her Eras Tour, which has been so popular that tickets have been on sale for $20,000 on Vivid Seats, a second-hand ticket website.
The show on both days reached two different peaks, one at 8:30 p.m. and the other at 10:30 p.m. There is no other information on which song could have caused these peaks since all the songs on the list were there to get the crowd on their feet.
This event has been no surprise for seismologists. Caplan-Auerbach claims, “The seismometer also recorded signals when “The Weeknd” played at Lumen Field on Aug. 25, 2022.” She is also looking forward to Beyoncé’s concert on September 14th.
Ruesch is looking forward to the attention of the public. She thinks it is a great idea if some of the “young Swifties out there” decide to become earth scientists or seismologists later on.
With Credits to:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/arts/music/taylor-swift-earthquake-seattle-.html
The earthquake itself had a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter Scale, and seismologists say that the concert was one of the largest performances that they have detected in a long time.
Pacific Northwest Seismic Network seismologist Mouse Reusch says, “It’s certainly the biggest concert we’ve had in a while…We’re talking about 70,000 people and all the music and paraphernalia associated with the concert.”
According to Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University, this “Swift Quake” recorded a maximum ground acceleration of 0.011 meters per second squared.
Scientists then converted the information from the seismometer into the Richter scale measure (the measurement unit for earthquakes). Through this process, they have detected that the earthquake from Swift’s concert has reached a comparable size to the 2011 “Beast Quake,” which had a magnitude close to 2.0.
The Richter scale showed that the readings of the concert were almost “twice as hard” (said by Caplan-Auerbach) as the 2011 quake. This new result is most likely caused by the syncing of the Swifties (Taylor Swift’s fans) dancing and the music coming from the sound system of the show.
The mega-popstar is now four months into her Eras Tour, which has been so popular that tickets have been on sale for $20,000 on Vivid Seats, a second-hand ticket website.
The show on both days reached two different peaks, one at 8:30 p.m. and the other at 10:30 p.m. There is no other information on which song could have caused these peaks since all the songs on the list were there to get the crowd on their feet.
This event has been no surprise for seismologists. Caplan-Auerbach claims, “The seismometer also recorded signals when “The Weeknd” played at Lumen Field on Aug. 25, 2022.” She is also looking forward to Beyoncé’s concert on September 14th.
Ruesch is looking forward to the attention of the public. She thinks it is a great idea if some of the “young Swifties out there” decide to become earth scientists or seismologists later on.
With Credits to:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/arts/music/taylor-swift-earthquake-seattle-.html
