Taylor Swift concert causes 2.3 magnitude Earthquake
A seismologist has said one of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour concerts has produced seismic activity qualifying as a 2.3 magnitude Earthquake on the Richter scale.
The concert happened in Lumen Fields, Seattle, USA, on July 22nd and 23rd. Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist, says that the seismic activity was likely caused by the sound system or the ‘Swifties’ activity at the concert.
Previous records of earth-shaking shows
This is not a foreign phenomenon in Seattle. The previous record was held by the city’s ‘Beast Quake,’ in 2011 before the Swift concert broke it by only a 0.3 measures difference but with “double the shaking”, said Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, professor of geology at Western Washington University.
The ‘Beast Quake’ happened as American football fans celebrated beloved player Marshawn Lynch’s touchdown for the Seatle Seahawks in a game against the New Orleans Saints.
In the past, certain music concerts, like the 2011 Foo Fighters performance in New Zealand, have also been associated with inducing seismic activity.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is a big hit
The news-making concert was a sellout show like almost all of Swift’s shows, with over 1,44,000 fans attending over the two nights.
The Lumen Fields show are part of the last leg of Taylor’s Eras tour in the USA, post which she will be heading to Europe, South America and parts of Asia and Australia.
Swift took to Instagram to thank her fans, saying “Seattle that was genuinely one of my favourite weekends ever. Thank you for everything. All the cheering, screaming, jumping, dancing, singing at the top of your lungs.”
This is not the only time the Eras tour is making headlines. Swift’s first tour in five years following the release of her 10th album, ‘Midnights,’ has been breaking records of all kinds.
Records broken by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour
Traffic to get the Eras tour tickets broke the internet ticketing portal ‘Ticketmaster’ which has long been mired in controversy for its monopolistic behaviour and bad service.
Angry Swift fans finally caused a big enough outrage that the matter reached the President of the United States–Joe Biden, who is looking into the matter. Taylor Swift may have helped bring a much-needed reform to the event industry.
During Taylor Swift’s visits to various cities, she has been honored in unique ways by local authorities. For instance, Glendale, Arizona temporarily changed its name to “Swift City” while she was there, and Tampa, Florida appointed her as an honorary mayor for a day.
In Nashville, Tennessee, the mayor declared a weekend as “Swift’s Homecoming” to celebrate her connection with the city. Additionally, a bench was dedicated to her in Centennial Park, a place she mentioned in her “Folklore” track “Invisible String,” where she apparently enjoys reading.
The tour has already broken worldwide sales records. Additionally, Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is set to break revenue records, and is close to having earned $1bn in its runtime beginning on March 17th, 2024.
The tour has been subject of much internet discussion and is Swift’s most expansive tour yet, consisting of 131 shows across 5 continents.
Taylor Swift’s career till now
Swift herself is a pioneering artist–the most streamed female artist on Spotify, one of the best-selling musicians, and the only act to have opened five albums with more than a million copies sold in the US.
Given all this, we can certainly say that Swift’s and ‘Swifties’ power cannot be underestimated.
