Just call her “Seismic Swift”: Fans attending Taylor Swift‘s concert in Seattle the weekend of July 22 were so enthusiastic, they literally caused an earthquake.
As the Seattle Times reports, all the jumping up and down and screaming caused a 2.3 magnitude earthquake, according to Washington University geology professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach. It beat out the previous seismic record set at Lumen Field in 2011: the so-called “Beast Quake” caused by fans going crazy when Seattle Seakhawks’ Marshawn Lynch scored a touchdown. That one only registered a two.
Meanwhile, a seismologist at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network tells the paper that they were able to identify which songs Taylor was playing by looking at a sonogram of the seismic activity. The biggest shaking took place during “Blank Space” and, of course, “Shake It Off.”
Taylor’s two shows in Seattle had her performing to over 144,000 fans over two shows, breaking a Lumen Field attendance record. Caplan-Auerbach says she also plans to measure the seismic activity when Beyoncé plays Lumen Field in September.
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