Taylor Swift’s recent Eras Tour concerts had fans in Seattle, Washington shook, literally.
Swifties have been passionately singing and dancing along during the 33-year-old singer’s U.S. portion of her Eras Tour for months. But fans at her Lumen Field concerts in Seattle possibly formed the most vibrant crowd so far, causing the ground to physically shake.
According to Western Washington University geology professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, Swift’s tour stops on July 22 and 23 created seismic activity. The seismologist collected data from a seismometer located near the stadium and determined that something “unusual” and “impressive” occurred in the stands both nights.
In an interview with TODAY.com conducted via email, Caplan-Auerbach said the pop superstar’s two shows at Lumen Field registered frequencies “mostly below the range of human hearing” that made the ground shake.
Caplan-Auerbach is currently conducting research to see what exactly led to the shaking, but she is skeptical that it came from the “Shake It Off” singer’s band playing her three-hour setlist or from fans cheering Swift’s name.
“Dancing would do it, jumping would do it, and some parts of the music would do it,” Caplan-Auerbach explained.
However, she can’t technically label the movement as a “Swift Quake.”
“I need to be very clear that there was no earthquake in the traditional sense,” she said. “Obviously the thing we think of when we think ‘earthquake’ is tectonic activity in the Earth. But a car driving by will make the ground shake. Trains and cattle and surf can all make the ground shake. So what we’re talking about isn’t a regular quake, it’s just ground shaking.”
Still, it doesn’t make registering on a seismometer any less remarkable.
She added, “I will say, though, that reports I’ve gotten from people at the concert said that it was mind-bogglingly loud and that they (could) very clearly feel the shaking, so I do think there’s reason to think this was a particularly impressive event.”
Seattle fans have a reputation for bringing roaring crowds to the bleachers in Lumen Field.
In 2011, NBC Sports’ ProFootballTalk reported that retired Seattle Seahawks’ running back Marshawn Lynch’s touchdown against the New Orleans Saints also recorded a tremor on the seismometer. The thundering reaction at the stadium, formerly known as Qwest Field, has been dubbed as the “Beast Quake.”
But how does the “Beast Quake” compare to Swift’s Seattle shows?
“I want to put that caveat out there because I don’t want a snickering match between Seahawks fans and Swifties but I will say Swifties have it in the bag,” Caplan-Auerbach told KING-TV, an NBC affiliate in Seattle. She noted that Swift had larger crowds at her concerts.
She continued, “This was much bigger than the Beast Quake in terms of the raw amplitude of shaking and it went on for a whole lot longer, of course, the Beast Quake was a moment in time, but thus far the Swifties really have Seahawks fans beat.”
The geology professor said the magnitude difference was 0.3, or the equivalent of about two “Beast Quakes.”
Since the “Beast Quake” has been cemented in history, what does Caplan-Auerbach think the Eras tour stops should be called?
In a radio interview with Bellingham, Washington, station KGMI, the new Swiftie came up with the perfect name.
She joked she has been referring to it as “Beast Quake (Taylor’s Version).”