Taylor Swift fans are in their earthquake era
Taylor Swift fans shaking it off at a concert in Seattle led to seismic activity equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake, according to a seismologist.
Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a geology professor at Western Washington University, observed that the phenomena occurred during Swift's two-night Eras stop at Lumen Field, which reported record attendance on July 22 and July 23 for the stadium housing over 72,000 Swifties and their friendship bracelets.
"I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals," Caplan-Auerbach told CNN. "If I overlay them on top of each other, they're nearly identical."
Mat Hayward/Getty Images Taylor Swift during her Eras tour stop in Seattle
Though Caplan-Auerbach initially detected a difference between the two nights that made up roughly 26 minutes, she "asked around and found out the Sunday show was delayed by about half an hour, so that adds up," Caplan-Auerbach added.
Caplan-Auerbach has dubbed the activity "Swift Quake," comparing it to the 2011 "Beast Quake," when Seattle Seahawks fans erupted following a touchdown by running back Marshawn Lynch. "Beast Quake" was beaten out by "Swift Quake" by a 0.3 magnitude.
"The primary difference is the duration of shaking," Caplan-Auerbach said. "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."
The next stop for Swift's Eras tour will be two nights at Santa Clara, Calif. on July 28 and 29 before she wraps up her domestic run in Los Angeles on Aug. 9. The "Cruel Summer" singer will then kick off the international leg of the tour in Mexico City on Aug. 24, running through next summer and concluding in London on Aug. 17, 2024. The tour spans all of her musical eras and albums, including her most recent tenth studio album Midnights.
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