I’d love to know who realized that Taylor Swift concerts generate seismic activity and how they came to that realization (this question gets answered in the CalTech excerpt further down in posting). In any event, seismologists have been tracking the activity since 2023 according to a July 28, 2023 article on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) news online website, Note: A link has been removed,
When Taylor Swift took the stage at Seattle’s Lumen Field this past weekend, the Earth moved. Literally.
Jackie Caplan-Auberbach, a professor in the geology department at the University of Western Washington [Western Washington Univesity; WWU[, pulled the data, which showed the pop star’s Eras Tour concert caused twice as much shaking as the infamous “Beast Quake” of 2011 — when Marshawn Lynch scored a touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks, and secured the NFL team a victory in a wild card playoff game.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) calculated Seattle fans cheering for the touchdown made the Earth shake with the equivalent of a 2.0 magnitude earthquake.
“If that was a two, this would’ve been a 2.3.,” Caplan-Auberbach told CBC News.
She noted that it’s not clear whether it was the fans dancing, or the booming sound system that caused all the shaking. In fact, by geology standards, it’s a pretty insignificant blip on the seismometer.
The machine used to measure the vibrations from the Earth happens to be located next to the stadium where Swift was performing back-to-back sold-out shows. [emphasis mine]
The seismometer set list
The data the seismologists collected can be used in some pretty interesting ways.
Mouse Reusch of PNSN told CBC News her colleagues took readings of the ground shaking, sped it up and turned them into an audio file.
When they played that back, they were able to reverse-engineer the concert’s set list by comparing the beats per minute of the readings and Swift’s songs.
“It was kind of this weird, backwards way of coming up with the set list from … the seismometer sitting next door to the Lumen Field,” she said.
Getting Swifties into science
Although Caplan-Auberbach said the data is just “a little bit of noise” from a seismology perspective, she notes the exercise is as a great opportunity to get teenagers and Swifties excited about science.
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Like so many discoveries in science, this seems to have been accidental.
Seismology study
Seismologists seemed to have jumped on the ‘Taylor Swift Ears tour earthshaking bandwagon’. A March 22, 2024 Caltech (California Institute of Technology) news release by Kimm Fesenmaier updates this story with news of the first of two studies on this phenomenon, Note: Links have been removed,
Fans at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Los Angeles made SoFi Stadium and the ground around it “ring like a bell” last August [2023], creating measurable seismic activity during each song. So say scientists from Caltech and UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles], who collected seismic data during one of the shows.
In a new paper, the researchers report that it was the dancing and jumping movements of the 70,000-plus fans, not the music or sound system, at the August 4 [2023] concert that created the seismic waves that have come to be called “Swift quakes.”
Following reports of seismic tremors generated by fans at sporting events and a Taylor Swift concert in Washington state, the California Office of Emergency Services reached out to seismic network operators in California to see if any interesting data could be collected during Swift’s concerts at SoFi Stadium, August 3–9 [2023].
Monica Kohler (PhD ’95), research professor of mechanical and civil engineering at Caltech, and her colleagues responded. To study Swift’s show on August 4 [2023], they tapped into an existing regional network of seismic stations, gathering data from permanent sensors reaching as far as about 6 miles from the stadium. They also temporarily installed 10 seismic sensors within SoFi itself and one more across the street. The sensors installed inside the stadium were inexpensive accelerometers that the researchers regularly build and deploy using off-the-shelf parts for the Community Seismic Network, a distributed network of more than 1,200 strong-motion detectors in California.
The researchers were not disappointed. The stadium and its surroundings certainly shook during the show. As expected, the manner of shaking was less like an earthquake, with a clear spike in ground movement, and more like harmonic tremor that involves bursts of energy at specific frequency intervals over longer periods of time. This type of seismicity is often associated with volcanic activity, such as the underground movement of magma.
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Until now, seismologists have disagreed about what exactly was causing the seismicity related to concert tremors. Some claimed it was the vibrating loudspeakers or the instruments coupled to the stage that caused the shaking while others said it was more likely to be the movements of all the concertgoers.
The data showed that the movement, not the music, best fit the waveforms. To confirm that answer, Tepp [Gabrielle Tepp, staff seismologist at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory], herself a bass guitarist, conducted a simple experiment. She set up a portable PA system close to one of the team’s accelerometers and blasted Swift’s song “Love Story.” Near the end, she jumped up and down to the beat. It was only when she started jumping that the seismic sensor recorded harmonic signals. Tepp also tried playing her bass guitar to a steady beat with the same speaker and, again, did not find the nice harmonic signal even though, as she says, “the bass beats were probably more exactly on the beat than my jumping was.”
The study was not only about investigating the source of concert tremor. Kohler points out that during emergencies, stadiums and other large structures, such as conference centers, are used as emergency shelters. “In those cases, it would be really important to be able to monitor the motions of these structures before, during, and after a large-scale event like an earthquake to be able to determine whether the structure is still safe, reliable, and sound,” Kohler says.
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Tepp points out that the study also serves as a useful reminder that earthquakes are not the only kind of seismic activity that seismologists should be analyzing. “We’ve designed all of our magnitude scales based on earthquakes, but what do you do when the signal doesn’t look like an earthquake? How do you characterize its strength?” Tepp says. “Looking at these non-earthquake signals can be really helpful for evaluating the different tools that we have as seismologists and reevaluating our assumptions that go into those.”
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For the curious, there’s more seismological detail in Fesenmaier’s March 22, 2024 Caltech (California Institute of Technology) news release.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Shake to the Beat: Exploring the Seismic Signals and Stadium Response of Concerts and Music Fans by Gabrielle Tepp, Igor Stubailo, Monica Kohler, Richard Guy, Yousef Bozorgnia. Seismological Research Letters (2024) 95 (4): 2179–2194. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220230385
This paper is behind a paywall.
Science communication and seismology study
Seismological interest was stimulated all the way to Ireland. A September 2, 2025 Trinity College Dublin press release (also on EurekAlert) describes how the Irish approached the concerts, Note: A link has been removed,
The seismic activity generated by Taylor Swift’s concerts in Dublin in 2024 provided a unique opportunity for scientific engagement and education, according to the authors of a groundbreaking new study.
Geophysicist Eleanor Dunn from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies hit the headlines in July 2024 with her #SwiftQuakeDublin project studying the seismic activity generated by Taylor Swift’s concerts in Dublin.
Now the PhD student and one of her supervisors, Professor Joseph Roche from the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, have published an academic paper in the International Journal of Science Education about the power of pop culture events to boost scientific understanding and engagement.
The paper, “Are you ready for it? Harnessing celebrity influence for science communication and seismology – The Taylor Swift effect”, describes the powerful potential for celebrity influence in science communication and public understanding of science.
In June 2024, as Taylor Swift played three record-breaking nights at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, researchers installed 42 temporary seismometers across 21 locations surrounding the venue. This extensive network allowed them to meticulously record and compare the seismic impact of the concerts with the readings from the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN).
Measuring this “SwiftQuake” garnered public and media attention through strategic social and traditional media campaigns, captivating fans and the wider public alike. Following the concerts, the team analysed the collected seismic data, sharing their findings with audiences and inviting fans to contribute their concert videos to aid in the seismic analysis.
Seismic signals measured at the stadium for songs such as Shake It Off were matched with patterns detected by the national network in the Dublin mountains and in Wexford, showing the SwiftQuake being detected more than 100km away.
By examining the extensive social and traditional media output, the study highlights how cultural events with massive public appeal can be leveraged to engage citizens and enhance their understanding of complex scientific concepts.
Lead author Eleanor Dunn, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, explains: “This project was an incredible opportunity to bridge the gap between celebrity pop culture and scientific inquiry. Witnessing the public’s enthusiasm, especially from Swifties, for understanding how their collective energy translated into measurable seismic waves was truly inspiring. It showed us that science is all around us, even in our favourite music events!
“This study demonstrates that integrating popular cultural events into scientific research can create accessible and exciting avenues for public engagement, transforming audiences into active participants in scientific discovery.”
Professor Joseph Roche, co-author of the study, from the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, praised Dunn’s innovative approach. “Eleanor’s research showcases the power of interdisciplinary thinking, combining seismology, science communication, and celebrity studies. It’s a brilliant example of what happens when a researcher combines their unique research skills with their personal passions. Eleanor is a dedicated Swiftie and, once this study is published, Taylor is going to be just as big a fan of Eleanor’s research!”
Key Findings:
- Innovative Engagement: The deployment of 42 seismometers around a major concert venue successfully captured the seismic impact of a large-scale cultural event.
- Public Interest: Strategic social and traditional media campaigns generated significant public interest in seismology and science communication.
- Citizen Science Potential: The project successfully invited and utilised fan-contributed content for scientific analysis, showcasing a unique form of citizen science.
- Pop Culture as a Catalyst: The research confirms the potential of pop culture events to act as powerful catalysts for scientific understanding and engagement.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Are you ready for it? Harnessing celebrity influence for science communication and seismology – The Taylor Swift effect by Eleanor Dunn & Joseph Roche. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 1–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2025.2534042 Published online: 22 Aug 2025
This paper is open access and you may want to read it just for the style. Note: Links have been removed,
Dear reader: introduction
In July 2023, news broke of the first recorded SwiftQuake, a phenomenon that captured the imagination and scientific curiosity of Swifties and journalists worldwide (Sainato, Citation2023; Kelly, Citation2023). However, had Swifties really created an earthquake during Swift’s iconic Eras Tour at Lumen Field Stadium, Seattle? As usual, the story is more complicated than headlines might suggest. Still, thousands of excited fans had generated seismic activity strong enough to be detected by seismometers located near the stadium.
This one-off event soon turned into a branch of geophysics in its own right – Swift Seismology – with research groups all around the world popping up following Swift’s record-breaking world tour as she travelled from the USA to South America, Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe and ending in Canada (BGS Press, Citation2024; Caplan-Auerbach et al., Citation2024; Tepp et al., Citation2024). The tour comprised 149 shows and was the highest grossing tour of all time (Lind, Citation2024).
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Finally, Stephanie Edwards wrote a September 3, 2025 article in Discover Magazine titled “Fans at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Generated SwiftQuakes — Seismic Waves Felt 60 Miles Away; Learn more about how a team of scientists turned The Eras Tour into a global platform for science communication,”
…seismic events, known as SwiftQuakes, inspired an entire branch of geophysics interested in analyzing the seismic activity caused by fans …
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While the SwiftQuake data is impressive in itself, the public interest surrounding the seismic monitoring in Dublin surprised scientists. They found that their social and traditional media discussions around seismic activity sparked an interest in science with the younger generation.
Additionally, fans who attended the concert were encouraged to submit their concert videos to help aid the study, which allowed concertgoers to directly participate in the research and piqued their interest in the results even further.
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SwiftQuakes and a new branch of geophysics? Science is everywhere.