The likely cause was a combination of the music from the concert’s sound system and Swift’s fans — sometimes known as Swifties — dancing in sync with it, seismologists said.
The pop megastar is currently four months into her Eras Tour, a sold-out 52-date national tour that has drawn immense crowds of Swifties to hear her perform songs spanning her 10-album career.
Her opening Arizona show in March drew about 70,000 fans. Ticket prices for her show in Santa Clara, California, on Friday were selling for up to $US20,000 on Vivid Seats, a secondhand ticket exchange.
The two back-to-back concerts in Seattle logged a near-identical pattern on the seismometer, Reusch said, which suggested the sets were nearly identical as well.
“That was surprising to me, that we’re able to see something so coherent,” she said. “One was offset by about 26 minutes because it was late.”
The shaking at both shows reached a maximum peak twice, first around 7:30 p.m., and the second around 9:30pm, according to data shared with The New York Times.
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It was not immediately clear which Swift songs caused the peaks. Besides Shake It Off, the setlist included Love Story, Bad Blood, and Anti-Hero, all songs guaranteed to get Swifties on their feet.
While the concerts shook the ground exceptionally hard, Caplan-Auerback said, it is important to understand that seismometers pick up signals from “anything that shakes the ground,” including cars, trains and even wind.
Nor are Swift’s earthshaking abilities unique to the music world.
The seismometer also recorded signals when The Weeknd played at Lumen Field on August 25, 2022, Caplan-Auerback said, though they were not as strong.
Beyoncé will be playing there September 14, she said. “I’ll be looking at that for sure.”
As for Reusch, she was encouraged by the public attention.
“Maybe there’s some young Swifties out there that will some day become seismologists or earth scientists,” she said. “That would be a real happy ending.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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