Taylor Swift Edinburgh: Swifties' dancing to favourite songs sparks earthquake readings across Capital

Taylor Swift fans in Edinburgh were so enthusiastic about the superstar at last weekend’s concerts at Murrayfield that scientists recorded earthquake readings up to six kilometres from the venue.

Monitoring stations around the Capital, run by the British Geological Survey (BGS), showed seismic activity generated by each of the concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And each time the songs which produced the biggest readings were ‘…Ready For It?’ ‘Cruel Summer’ and ‘champagne problems’.

Taylor Swift on her first night at Murrayfield, marking the start of the UK leg of her Eras world tour. Picture: Lisa Ferguson. | LISA FERGUSON

The BGS said the activity was mainly generated by Swifties dancing in time to the music and reached its peak at 160 beats per minute during ‘…Ready For It?’, where the crowd was transmitting approximately 80 kW of power - equivalent to around 6,000 car batteries.

Analysis of the seismograph data suggests that the most enthusiastic dancing occurred on the Friday night, although crowds on each night generated their own significant readings.

Top: Seismograph showing ground velocity recorded 4km from the stadium. Bottom: Spectrograph showing the power at each frequency (in beats per minutes) during Friday's concert. Copyright: BGS/UKRI. | 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 concert goers remotely through our data. The opportunity to explore a 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!”

BGS is the UK's national earthquake monitoring agency and operates a network of monitoring stations around the country. Every year, as many as 300 naturally occurring earthquakes are detected in the UK, but only around 30 are of a high enough magnitude to be felt by people. Induced seismic events, those caused by human activity such as sonic booms, are also recorded.

The three Murrayfield concerts marked the start of the UK leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras world tour and nearly 220,000 ticket-holders flocked to see her in Edinburgh. The singing sensation has now moved on to Liverpool, where she will play to sell-out crowds at Anfield stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.