- Who
- Taylor Swift
- What
- 2.3 total number
- Where
- United States (Seattle)
- When
Reports of seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3-magnitude earthquake at Taylor Swift’s (USA) Eras Tour concerts at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, USA, on 22–23 July 2023 sent shockwaves through the music industry. A stadium-record 72,171 “Swifties” were in attendance for the first night of the Seattle double-header and 144,000 across the weekend, with seismologists pinning the near-identical results for both gigs on the noise generated by an enthusiastic crowd and the sound system.
Swift posted on Instagram, “Seattle that was genuinely one of my favourite weekends ever. Thank you for everything. All the cheering, screaming, jumping, dancing, singing at the top of your lungs.”
Seismic activity had been measured at music concerts previously, notably the “strong, low-frequency tremors” with a “peak oscillation” of 3 Hz caused by the Foo Fighters and some 50,000 fans at Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium in New Zealand on 13 December 2011, but the gigs at Lumen Field – which included “Cruel Summer”, the live debut of “no body, no crime” with HAIM and the appropriately titled “Shake It Off” across nine career-spanning segments – are believed to have made the earth move – literally – like no other concerts.
In an interview with CNN, seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach explained: “I collected about 10 hours of data [from the Swift concert] where rhythm controlled the behaviour. The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it.”
Other concerts that have been cited for inducing seismic activity include Travis Scott’s controversial visit to Italy’s Circus Maximus on 7 August 2023, which, it was suggested, posed a threat to the foundations of the ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium after generating tremors equivalent to a 1.3-magnitude quake. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s visit to Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, on 14 May 2016 and Garth Brooks’ Tiger Stadium outing at Louisiana State University, USA, on 2 May 2022, which “caused a small earthquake”, also set local seismometers in motion.
