Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift fans generate record-breaking seismic activity at Seattle shows

A seismologist examined the seismic activity generated from two Taylor Swift The Eras tour concerts in Seattle was equivalent to that of an earthquake.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – JULY 22: Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Lumen Field on July 22, 2023 in Seattle, Washington.
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When it comes to shaking it off, nobody quite does it like Taylor Swift and her fans.

And this may just be a scientific fact. Washington state seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach examined seismic wave data from a station located outside of Lumen Field in Seattle, where Swift performed concerts on July 22 and July 23 as part of her Eras tour.

As for the findings? Caplan-Auerbach told CNN the activity at the stadium on those nights caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.

"For Taylor Swift, I collected about 10 hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior," she said. "The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it."

The seismologist, who works as a geology professor at Western Washington University, performed the analysis in response to a query on a Pacific Northwest earthquake group she moderates on Facebook, in which a person pondered the differences in signal between a Swift concert and a Seattle Seahawks gameβ€”which are also played at Lumen Field, which can seat about 70,000 people.

Compared to the 2011 "Beast Quake," when fans responded excitedly to a touchdown by running back Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch, there was a clear winner.

"I will say Swifties have it in the bag," Caplan Auerbach told Seattle NBC affiliate King 5 News. "This was much bigger than the Beast Quake in terms of the raw amplitude of shaking and it went on for a whole lot longer, of course, the Beast Quake was a moment in time, but thus far the Swifties really have Seahawks fans beat."

She did, however, note on Twitter that "data from the concert may not be caused by the fansβ€”it may be the sound system."

And while the science has spoken, fans attending Swift's Seattle shows detailed the experience inside the venue.

"I was at the Sunday performance," one user wrote on Facebook. "That stadium really shook! It definitely felt like an earthquake! The bass tone was so intense it felt like it was going through my body...sounds odd, but that's how it felt. Concerts are always loud, but this one was different."

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