By: Eric Liu

At the stadium in Seattle, Washington, a show is held by a world-renowned singer. Many fans have been eagerly waiting for this for a long time, with some people even flying out there. About 70,000+ people mostly from Seattle are in attendance.

On July 22, 2023, Taylor Swift went to perform at the Lumen Field as a part of her “Eras” tour. While singing with Taylor, her fans dubbed the “swifties” caused a mini earthquake that registered on a seismometer as a magnitude 2.3 earthquake.

What caused this earthquake to happen? Adeli Sulliman, a writer for the Washington Post wrote, “Swift’s sold out Seattle concerts reportedly broke the attendance record at Lumen Field, which has a capacity of about 72,000 people.”(The Washington Post).

A key factor in this earthquake happening was the amount of people there. Due to the record-breaking number of people at the concert and the huge sound waves produced by the fans, it was enough to vibrate the ground and generate a human made earthquake.

Though no song played that was specifically causing the earthquake, it is widely believed that the combination of the sound system, the chanting and cheering fans, and the dancing of the fans was ultimately what caused the earthquake. Swift’s fans were producing so much energy by dancing and stomping that it caused a 2.3 magnitude earthquake that affected the area.

This earthquake wasn’t that dangerous to the people in it. Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist at Western Washington University was asked about the earthquake and said, “ a maximum ground acceleration of roughly 0.011 meter per second squared.”(New York Times).

The fact that it had such a low ground acceleration showed how safe it was. Since the earthquake was so small it couldn’t have caused a lot of damage due to the small amounts of energy released during the time. Also, the earthquake was only felt in Lumen Field.

Many people are not surprised that Swift ultimately caused such a small earthquake, Tarje Nissen-Meyer, a geophysicist from the University of Oxford said, “Vibrations from all sorts of sources continuously attack the earth.” (The Washington Post).

The “Swift Quake” can be ultimately compared to the “Beast Quake” that happened 12 years ago, as both caused earthquakes in the same Lumen Field. This “Beast Quake” was caused by Marshawn Lynch, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback after he scored a touchdown, eventually leading to the Seahawks’ win over the New Orleans Saints, 41-36. The “Swift Quake was ultimately the bigger man-made earthquake, as the swifties were said to have been shaking the ground twice as hard compared to the sports fans. The quake difference is 0.3 magnitude.

Even though Swift caused a mini earthquake, it doesn’t mean that it is specific to her in the music industry. A lot of others have done the same like the Weeknd who also received seismometer signals at the Lumen Field. With the next big artist, Beyonce coming to perform at Lumen Field, this could foreshadow another small earthquake like the “Swift Quake”.