What did Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Seattle measure on the Richter scale?

A seismologist has revealed that two recent Taylor Swift concerts on her Eras Tour generated record-breaking seismic activity in the city of Seattle, Washington.

Speaking to CNN, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a geology professor at Western Washington University, explained that the combined noise and movement of the singer’s sound system and fans was equivalent to an earthquake measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale.

“I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” she said. “If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”

What was the previous record for a tremor in Seatlle?

The previous record in Seattle was also caused by an event rather than actual earthquake, namely the “Beast Quake” caused by NFL fans celebrating Marshawn Lynch’s touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks against the New Orleans Saints at Lumen Field (then Qwest Field).

That tremor was recorded at a magnitude of 2 and although the difference was just 0.3, Caplan-Auerbach believes the “shaking was twice as strong” and “absolutely doubled it”.

Swift’s Seattle gigs were also held at Lumen Field on 22 and 23 July, with around 144,000 fans attending across the two nights. The American leg of the tour will come to an end at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on 9 August, after which the 33-year-old will perform in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Singapore and a whole host of European countries.

What is the biggest earthquake ever recorded?

The most powerful seismic activity ever recorded was the Great Chilean earthquake in 1960, which reached 9.4 to 9.6 on the Richter scale and is thought to have killed up to 6000 people, although that is an unofficial figure.