Taylor Swift fans attending the pop icon's Seattle "Eras" tour concert at Lumen Field caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
The "Swift Quake" is drawing comparisons to the 2011 "Beast Quake" event when Seattle Seahawks fans erupted in celebration after a touchdown by running back Marshawn Lynch.
Both events were detected on the same local seismometer, as confirmed by seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach to CNN.
After spotting the comparison in a Pacific Northwest earthquake group she moderates on Facebook, Caplan-Auerbach, a geology professor at Western Washington University, wasted no time and immediately began her investigation
"I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals," she said, adding, "If I overlay them on top of each other, they're nearly identical."
Apart from the surprise songs that Swift is renowned for performing, there is a difference of approximately 26 minutes between the July 22 and July 23 shows
"I asked around and found out the Sunday show was delayed by about half an hour, so that adds up," Caplan-Auerbach said.
Although the "Swift Quake" and the "Beast Quake" only differ by a magnitude of 0.3, Caplan-Auerbach pointed out that Swift's fans have outdone Seahawks fans.
"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."
Caplan-Auerbach added that while she finds the idea of being a Swift fan exciting, her primary motivation is to demystify science and make it more accessible to others.
"What I love is to be able to share that this is science," Caplan-Auerbach said, adding that "it doesn't have to happen in a lab with a white coat. Everyday observations and experiences are science."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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