The team were invited by Wembley Park to install nine seismometers around the venue ahead of Taylor Swift’s first Eras concerts in London. The instruments recorded ground seismic waves generated by fans dancing within and outside Wembley Stadium over three nights, from 21–23rd June 2024.
Geophysicists Professor Ana Ferreira and her team usually use seismometers to detect and study a wide range of phenomena using seismic data. In a previous project, the team placed 50 seismometers on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, detecting whale songs as well as the 2022 Tonga earthquake on the other side of the planet.
The concerts gave the team the chance to study seismic signals in an urban environment. The opening night recorded the greatest levels of ground motion of the three dates with Earth movement up to a maximum of 0.03 mm (the size of a very fine hair). ‘Love Story’ produced the strongest ground shaking, equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude around 0.8, followed closely by ‘Shake It Off’.
With our instruments we were able to ‘listen’ to the Earth's heartbeat which was certainly beating fast during songs such as ‘Love Story’ which produced energy in the ground equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude around 0.8.
“This is a great testimony of how even a so-called small magnitude event is actually ‘big’, being generated by such a huge and enthusiastic dancing crowd.
