Taylor Swift broke another record with her Eras Tour—2023’s biggest concert tour so far—when her performance set off a 2.3 magnitude seismic activity during the Seattle weekend of her tour at Lumen Field, according to local seismologists.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Lumen Field on July 22, ... [+]
Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a geology professor at Western Washington University, noted a 2.3 magnitude Swift-quake on a seismometer located next to Lumen Field during Swift’s July 22 and 23 performances to a sold out crowd of over 144,000 dancing fans.
Caplan-Auerbach called it “Seismic Swift,” according to the Seattle Times, saying it was clear the recording correlated with Swift’s three-hour-plus set.
Seismologists are having fun piecing together Swift’s setlist to the waves, with one staffer at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network creating a sonogram to match the seismic activity with which songs Swift was singing: “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off” from Swift’s 1989 era were identified.
Seattle was built directly on several fault lines making it prone to seismic shifts.
Seattle Seahawk fans originally held the record for creating the largest seismic activity at Lumen Field. During a 2011 game against the New Orleans Saints, fans erupted when runningback Marshawn Lynch, or “Beast Mode,” scored a touchdown. The eruption caused a 2.0 magnitude earthquake — an event now called “Beast Quake.”
Another concert that set off seismic activity: The Weeknd in August 2022. The Weeknd’s concert was slightly larger than “Beast Quake” but did not beat “Seismic Swift,” which doubled the size of “Beast Quake.” Caplan-Auerbach told CNN that concerts generally can set off more activity than a football game because of the duration, beat of the music, and speakers all contributing to the ground shaking. Mouse Reush, a seismologist at Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, told the Seattle Times they will compare their data to Bruce Springsteen’s February concert at Climate Pledge Arena to further seismic concert research.
Swift’s Era’s tour is the year’s largest concert, grossing over $300 million, and wrapping up in the next two weeks. On August 24, Swift will start her international leg of the tour in Mexico City. So far, the Era’s tour has grossed over $300 million in revenue. The Federal Reserve even credited Swift with helping the U.S. tourism economy because of her boost to the local economies on her tour stops. Forbes projects the tour could push Swift into her billionaire’s era.
Taylor Swift fans ‘Shake It Off,’ causing record-breaking seismic activity during Seattle shows (CNN)
Taylor Swift sang ‘Shake It Off’ in Seattle — and a seismometer felt it (Seattle Times)
Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Is The Biggest Tour Of 2023 So Far, And It's Not Even Close (Forbes)
How The Eras Tour Could Boost Taylor Swift's Net Worth (Forbes)