Swift Quake: Taylor Swift’s concert made the ground shake, study reveals

Photo from @taylorswift/Instagram

It’s not an earthquake; it’s all about the “Swift Quake” in Los Angeles!

More than breaking historic records, it seems Swifties are causing a whole different kind of shake-up in Los Angeles. 

A recent study conducted jointly by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has unearthed some surprising seismic activity during one of Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” concerts at the SoFi Stadium.

Taking center stage on Aug. 5, 2023, the Grammy-award winning artist’s show drew a massive audience of around 70,000 fans, who enthusiastically sang and danced along to the chart-topping hits of the “Cruel Summer” star. 

However, it wasn’t the music itself that caused the ground to shake, but rather the collective energy of the audience.

With a network of sensors both inside and outside the stadium, plus seismic monitoring stations scattered within a 9-kilometer radius, researchers were able to capture the seismic ripples caused by the fans’ collective foot-stomping, fist-pumping, and yes, even jumping. 

Dr. Emily Tepp, co-author of the said study titled “Shake to the Beat: Exploring the Seismic Signals and Stadium Response of Concerts and Music Fans,” revealed to the LA Times, “So it turns out jumping is very effective at creating these harmonic signals. The stronger or the more people you have jumping, the more energy is going into [the ground].”

This phenomenon was especially pronounced during Swift’s more energetic songs, with her hit single “Shake It Off” registering the largest local magnitude of 0.851, according to the study.

“I would definitely say for the stronger songs, you probably have a lot more people excited, a lot more people jumping around,” she added.

This isn’t the first time the singer-songwriter’s concerts have triggered seismic activity. In Seattle, fans danced, jumped and shook so vigorously during her performance that a nearby seismometer recorded the activity as equivalent to a magnitude 2.3 earthquake, earning the nickname “Swift Quake.” 

This caught the attention of the California Office of Emergency Services, sparking interest in further research into the seismic sway of Swift’s shows.