Data suggests Swifties broke record for Seattle seismic activity — louder than Beast Quake
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Taylor Swift in Seattle
Pop superstar Taylor Swift will perform at Lumen Field in Seattle for two nights — Saturday, July 22, and Sunday, July 23. The News Tribune will fill you in on all the details, from how to find (expensive!) tickets to what you can bring to the shows. Check back for updates!
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Taylor Swift’s weekend tour stop in Seattle has come and gone — but her impact will stay for a while longer, now that her nights at Lumen Field have officially broken the record for seismic activity measured at the nearest seismometer, according to Western Washington University seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach.
That means Swifties surpassed Seahawks fans, who held the record for years with the “Beast Quake,” a crowd response to a now-legendary touchdown by Marshawn Lynch in a game against the New Orleans Saints in 2011. Fans caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.0 magnitude earthquake, a feat they’ve repeated in years since.
Who beat Beast Quake’s record?
This record was toppled last year, by the Weeknd’s Seattle performance, by a reportedly small margin. Swift’s performances broke the record by a substantial margin, causing seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 earthquake, according to an interview Caplan-Auerbach did with KING 5, the Seattle NBC affiliate.
The geology professor posted data on Facebook noting the seismic activity was nearly the same during both of Swift’s concerts July 22-23, showing a pattern-like rise and fall during the global pop star’s set.
“This is consistent with a set list that is repeated over the two nights… the ground shaking during the songs themselves, if that’s what the strong pulses of energy are, is just incredibly similar,” stated Caplan-Auerbach in the post.
It is worth noting that there were more people at the Swift concert, and the nature of a concert is going to produce more ground-resonating sound (i.e. what shows as seismic activity) than a football game. But when comparing the overall seismic activity and highest points, the Swifties take it.
Caplan-Auerbach is reportedly working on collecting further data to interpret the activity even more.
This story was originally published July 28, 2023 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Data suggests Swifties broke record for Seattle seismic activity — louder than Beast Quake."
