UCL geophysicists installed nine seismometers around Wembley Park ahead of Taylor Swift's first Eras concerts in London and found that the opening night performance of 'Love Story' produced the strongest ground tremors.
The instruments recorded ground seismic waves generated by fans dancing within and outside Wembley Stadium over three nights, from 21st to 23rd June.
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'.
The team, who were invited to install the seismometers by Wembley Park, were led by geophysicists Professor Ana Ferreira and Dr Stephen Hicks (UCL Earth Sciences), with instruments shared by UK-based manufacturer Güralp Systems Ltd and University of Oxford's Dr Paula Koelemeijer.
Professor Ferreira and her team 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.
Professor Ana Ferreira (UCL Earth Sciences) said: "Taylor Swift fans were clearly having the time of their lives in Wembley Park during Taylor's first London concerts.
"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."
Dr Stephen Hicks said: "Amazingly, each of Taylor's concerts over the three consecutive days at Wembley produce near-identical seismic signals, which is quite a unique phenomenon in nature. This gives us quite a novel opportunity to probe the subsurface environment beneath urban areas and to compare between different cities around the world where Taylor has performed."
