Taylor Swift fans made the Earth move, seismic activity recorded in Edinburgh

At Taylor Swift’s three Edinburgh concerts last weekend, thousands of fans cheered and danced so much that seismic activity was recorded by the British Geological Survey (BGS), according to a report in BBC. The seismic activity detected by the monitoring stations was as far away as 6 kilometers (3.73 miles).

The ‘Swifties’ caused the most commotion during three songs – “Cruel Summer”, “Ready For It?” and “Champagne Problems.” It also showed that the crowd of 73,000 people danced, shouted and stamped the loudest of the three performances. It was the first of Swift’s 17 UK performances, which will conclude with an eight-night run at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Analysis of seismograph data revealed that the “most enthusiastic dancing” occurred on June 7, “although the crowds on each night generated their own significant readings,” the BGS said. He continued: “Although the events were detected by sensitive scientific instruments designed to identify even the slightest seismic activity many kilometers away, the vibrations generated by the concert would likely not have been felt by anyone else who was not in the immediate vicinity. .”

BGS said that during “Ready For It?”, activity peaked at 160 beats per minute (bpm), with the crowd transmitting approximately 80 kW of electricity, which is comparable to 10 to 16 car batteries, according to CNN. “Based on maximum amplitude of motion (the distance the ground moves), Friday night’s event was the most energetic by a small margin, recording 23.4 nanometers (nm) of motion, versus 22.8 nm and 23.3 nm on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. ”, he added.

Callum Harrison, BGS seismologist, said on the organisation’s website: “The BGS is the national body responsible for recording earthquakes to inform government, the public, industry and regulators, and enable greater understanding of earthquake risk and planning. future events.
“It’s incredible that we were able to remotely measure the reactions of thousands of concertgoers through our data. The opportunity to explore seismic activity created by a different type of phenomenon has been exciting,” she added.