A recent Taylor Swift performance of Shake It Off was so loud it registered on the earthquake scale.
Thousands of Swifties went so wild during the popstar’s sell-out performances at the Lumen Field stadium in Seattle on July 22 and 23 the ground was shaking as much as a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
Seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach conducted the survey after being asked if Taylor’s concert compared to when fans reacted to NFL star Marshawn Lynch’s touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks known as the city’s ‘Beast Quake’.
“I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” she told CNN, adding, “If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”
“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 Taylor Swift’s concert trounced the magnitude of the Beastquake but would have been helped by the country-pop star’s huge speakers rather than natural crowd sounds from the NFL game.
I guess I should show the data. Swifties > Seahawks fans.
— Jackie Caplan-Auerbach 🇺🇦 🌻 (@geophysichick) July 27, 2023
(except data from the concert may not be caused by the fans--it may be the sound system, so not really a fair comparison). pic.twitter.com/szwowOYQFi
“What I love is to be able to share that this is science” she said, adding that “it doesn’t have to happen in a lab with a white coat. Everyday observations and experiences are science.”
It came as it was revealed the pop star officially has more No. 1 albums than any woman in history.
“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”, released earlier this month, is the third in her endeavour to re-record her first six albums, instigated by music manager Scooter Braun’s sale of her early catalog. It has officially debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming her 12th album to reach the top spot.
Previously, Barbra Streisand held the record, with 11 No. 1 albums.
