Taylor Swift fans really know how to “Shake It Off” — and shake the ground.
Scientists studied how the stadium and ground trembled during one of Swift’s Eras Tour concerts last August. They found that dancing fans generated vibrations in the ground — seismic waves that matched the beat of each song.
The team shared its findings March 13 in Seismological Research Letters.
“It’s really fun to be able to use seismic tools to understand things like music and concerts and events that bring people together,” says Eva Golos. A seismologist, she studies earthquakes but was not involved in the new research. Golos works at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Stadium vibrations
This isn’t the first time seismologists have measured vibrations from a stadium. In 2011, Seattle Seahawks fans shook their home stadium with cheers after a stunning touchdown. And last July, Swifties rattled the ground at a Seattle concert.
The shaking from those events differs from an earthquake. Earthquakes usually last only a few seconds. A “concert tremor,” in contrast, can last several minutes.
The ground also moves in different ways during quakes and concerts. Earthquakes happen when huge slabs of Earth’s crust, called tectonic plates, shift around. Those motions permanently change the ground. The shaking caused by crowds doesn’t usually deform the Earth.
Concert tremor “is more like splashing on a puddle of water,” explains Gabrielle Tepp. She’s a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “You see the ripples coming out, but then once you’re done splashing, it just goes back to normal.”
Seismologists use similar instruments to detect earthquakes and concert tremors. In the new study, Tepp’s team set up motion sensors in and around SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. They did this right before Swift’s first Eras Tour performance there. Those instruments measured shaking from the…
Read the full article here