When Taylor Swift Caused An “Earthquake”

Satellite images of a country’s night lights let us monitor economic activity.

So too can a seismometer.

How Taylor Swift Shakes It Off

On July 22nd and 23rd, earthquake level seismic activity was recorded during the Taylor Swift ERAs concert. And no, it was not an earthquake. Especially (perhaps) during Shake It Off, the dial on the local seismometer jumped. Over two nights, when 144,000 fans were shaking to her music, they created the equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake,

A Western Washington University seismologist tells us that she, “…grabbed 10 hours of data, from when doors opened to well after I thought the audience had gone home, and I just plotted them out to see how did the ground shake,” Not the first time, during 2011, a “Beast Quake” of Seattle Seahawks fans erupted after Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch’s touchdown.

However, the Swifties “quake” far outlasted and exceeded the Seahawks temblor.

As did I, do enjoy Shake It Off:

Our Bottom Line: Unusual Indicators

Noting that after the three times (1929,1980,2008) a Philadelphia baseball team won a World Series, the economy crashed, one financial guru tweeted (Nov. 2022), “The Astros Must Save the American economy.” Meanwhile, for Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, the MUI (Men’s Underwear Index) was an indicator. As he explained, “Your children need clothes. Your wife needs clothes. You need clothes on the outside…” We could even monitor the number of shark attacks that plunge during a recession–maybe because of fewer vacations.

And, returning to Taylor Swift, we can add seismic activity to our unusual indicator list.

My sources and more: Thanks again to a BBC podcast for alerting me to the Taylor Swift seismic phenomenon. Then, a BBC article and The Washington Post had the details as did this econlife post (from which I have quoted) on unusual indicators. Finally, this article has some baseball history for 1929, 1980, and 2008,