Is there anything Taylor Swift’s fans can’t do?
The Shake It Off singer performed two sold-out concerts in Seattle last week and it was noted that her fans, affectionately known as Swifties, literally shook the earth.
American seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach took to Twitter to share her findings, which showed that when Swift took to the stage, her fans ended up generating seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
Caplan-Auerbach compared this to the 2011 “Beast Quake”, when Seattle Seahawks fans erupted after a late touchdown scored by Marshawn Lynch.
“The shaking was twice as strong as 'Beast Quake'. It absolutely doubled it,” she told CNN. "The primary difference is the duration of shaking. 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 behaviour. The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it,” she said.
However, she did note that it's not clear whether it was the fans dancing, or the booming sound system that caused all the shaking.
The machine used to measure the vibrations was located next to the stadium where Swift was performing back-to-back sold-out shows.
“I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” Caplan-Auerbach said. “If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”
The Eras tour is Swift's first stadium tour since 2018 and is her most expansive yet, with 131 shows across five continents.
