Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Edinburgh caused seismic activity

The British Geological Survey said the US superstar’s concerts at Murrayfield caused seismic activity.

The enthusiastic dancing by tens of thousands of Taylor Swift fans at her record-breaking concerts in Edinburgh was so intense that it was picked up by earthquake monitors.

Nearly 73,000 Swifties attended each of the three concerts at Murrayfield Stadium from Friday to Sunday. Their rapturous reception for the star generated earthquake readings detected up to 3.7 miles away.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) reported that the fans on the first night of the UK leg of Swift’s mammoth international Eras tour produced the most seismic activity, with spikes caused by dancing particularly evident during her songs “Cruel Summer,” “Ready For It?,” and “Shake It Off.”

The earthquake monitors recorded fans dancing in time to the music, reaching a peak of 160 beats per minute during “Ready For It?” The BGS stated that the crowd was transmitting around 80kW of energy – equivalent to around 6,000 car batteries. Additionally, a four-minute applause during “Champagne Problems” on the same night also caused a significant spike on the monitors.

A similar pattern of seismic activity was observed on all three nights, with Friday recording 23.4 nanometres (nm) of movement, compared to 22.8nm on Saturday and 23.3nm on Sunday. The seismic activity from the concerts was detected at two monitoring stations, the furthest of which was 3.7 miles away at the BGS office in the Lyell Centre.

BGS seismologist Callum Harrison said:

“BGS is the national body responsible for recording earthquakes to inform the Government, public, industry, and regulators, and allow for a greater understanding of earthquake risk and plan for future events.

“It’s amazing that we’ve been able to measure the reaction of thousands of concertgoers remotely through our data. The opportunity to explore seismic activity created by a different kind of phenomenon has been a thrill. Clearly, Scotland’s reputation for providing some of the most enthusiastic audiences remains well intact.”

The BGS noted that the vibrations generated by the concerts were unlikely to have been felt by anyone other than those in the immediate vicinity.

Edinburgh City Council approved an increase in stadium capacity to 72,990 for each night, and Swift thanked fans for breaking “the all-time attendance record for a stadium show in Scotland three times in a row.”

If Edinburgh managed this, just imagine what it is going to be like in Liverpool at Anfield Stadium.

The US superstar is set to play the first of three nights at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool today, June 13, before moving on to Cardiff and London.

She will then perform three nights in Dublin and, after a series of shows in Europe, will return to London in August to conclude the UK and European leg of the tour, which is estimated to be worth up to £1 billion to the UK economy.

For more on Taylor Swift Eras Tour at Anfield click here.