Taylor Swift fans are moving the Earth – literally!
Following her Eras Tour shows on July 22nd and 23rd at Seattle’s Lumen Field, it has been reported that her fans’ dancing caused the “equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.”
Western Washington University geology professor and seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach shared her findings with CNN, dubbing the seismic activity as “Swift Quakes.”
“I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” Professor Caplan-Auerbach said. “If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”
The main difference between the two shows is about a 26-minute time delay. “I asked around and found out the Sunday show was delayed by about half an hour, so that adds up,” Professor Caplan-Auerbach added.
The “Swift Quake” has been compared to the 2011 “Beast Quake,” when Seattle Seahawk fans erupted after a touchdown by running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch. That seismic activity was registered as a 2 earthquake.
While “Swift Quake” and “Beast Quake” have the magnitude difference of a 0.3 quake, Professor Caplan-Auerbach noted that the “Beast Quake” only lasted a few seconds compared to Taylor‘s hours-long concert.
“The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake.’ It absolutely doubled it,” Professor Caplan-Auerbach said.
“The primary difference is the duration of shaking,” Professor Caplan-Auerbach explained. “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.”
If you missed it, Taylor recently made some big changes to her social media platforms.
