Taylor Swift fans are greater than Seahawks fans — at least when it comes to creating an earthquake at Seattle’s pro football stadium. That’s the finding of seismologists looking at data between Swift’s concerts there last weekend and one of the most iconic plays in NFL history.
Swift performed at Seattle’s Lumen Field last Saturday and Sunday. Seismologists say her fans created a seismic event more powerful than the legendary “Beastquake.”
The New York Times reports that seismologists determined the “Swift Quake” was a magnitude 2.3. That’s 0.3 in magnitude higher than the one Seahawks fans created on Jan 8, 2011, when running back Marshawn Lynch broke multiple tackles by the New Orleans Saints on the way to a 67-yard touchdown run in the playoffs.
But because the Richter scale is logarithmic, that 0.3 magnitude means the Swifties created a quake twice as powerful as the Twelves did.
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Seismologists reportedly have a couple of theories as to why the Swift Quake was more powerful.
For one, there were more fans at the Swift concerts. The Seattle Times reports 144,000 fans — an average of 72,000 per night — were at the concerts. That’s nearly 6,000 more fans per night than the “Beastquake” game.
Another thing is the music coming from the concert sound system combined with Swift fans moving in sync with it were a big factor. And seismologists told the Times that the seismic patterns from the two shows were nearly identical, which likely lined up with the set lists.
