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Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour crowd caused earthquake-like tremors. These 5 songs shook SoFi Stadium the most.
Taylor Swift is known to have an energetic fan base, but just how much energy can 70,000 Swifties generate? A group of scientists in California may have an answer based on earthquake-like signals from her Los Angeles Eras Tour concert at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 5, 2023.
After Swift’s concerts at Seattle’s Lumen Field in July caused seismic activity, a California Institute of Technology research team sought to better understand what causes “concert tremor.” The team recorded vibrations from motion sensors it set up near and inside SoFi Stadium as well as regional seismic network stations and was able to detect 43 of the 45 songs Swift performed during her concert.
By calculating the energy radiated during each song at the Los Angeles concert, the Caltech researchers could interpret each as a local magnitude of an earthquake that would have radiated the same energy, according their research article, published in Seismological Research Letters on March 13.
With these calculations, the study found the most energetic signals during these songs:
- “Shake It Off” with a local magnitude of 0.851
- “You Belong with Me” with a local magnitude of 0.849
- “Love Story” with a local magnitude of 0.800
- “Cruel Summer” with a local magnitude of 0.741
- “22” with a local magnitude of 0.645
The energy released during each song is over a few minutes, rather than a second in the case of an earthquake, explained Gabrielle Tepp, a staff seismologist at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory who oversaw the study. “So the magnitude calculated from the maximum amplitude of shaking is much lower (about -2),” she told CBS News.
The researchers determined that crowd motion was the primary source of the concert tremor signals, not the speaker system and instruments.
They also analyzed three other concerts at SoFi in the summer of 2023: Morgan Wallen, Metallica and Beyoncé.
“Overall, the results from these concerts are similar to those from the Swift concerts and support the audience-source hypothesis,” the research article says. “The (local magnitude) of the songs was in the same range as the Swift concerts, although none matched or exceeded the strongest Swift signal.”
Swift’s Eras Tour has broken multiple records, including becoming the first to gross over $1 billion, according to Pollstar. Swift is currently on a brief break from shows, with the tour starting again on May 9 in Paris after the release of her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19.
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A food company known for popular grocery store condiments has recalled a package of tortilla strips that may be contaminated with wheat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The product is meant to be gluten-free.
Sugar Foods, a manufacturing and distribution corporation focused mainly on various toppings, artificial sweeteners and snacks, issued the recall for the “Santa Fe Style” version of tortilla strips sold by the brand Fresh Gourmet.
“People who have a wheat allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the product,” said Sugar Foods in an announcement posted by the FDA.
Packages of these tortilla strips with an expiration date as late as June 20, 2025, could contain undeclared wheat, meaning the allergen is not listed as an ingredient on the label. The Fresh Gourmet product is marketed as gluten-free.
Sugar Foods said a customer informed the company on Nov. 19 that packages of the tortilla strips actually contained crispy onions, another Fresh Gourmet product normally sold in a similar container. The brand’s crispy onion product does contain wheat, and that allergen is noted on the label.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
No illnesses tied to the packaging mistake have been reported, according to the announcement from Sugar Foods. However, the company is still recalling the tortilla strips as a precaution. The contamination issue may have affected products distributed between Sept. 30 and Nov. 11 in 22 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
Sugar Foods has advised anyone with questions about the recall to contact the company’s consumer care department by email or phone.
CBS News reached out to Sugar Foods for more information but did not receive an immediate reply.
This is the latest in a series of food product recalls affected because of contamination issues, although the others involved harmful bacteria. Some recent, high-profile incidents include an E. coli outbreak from organic carrots that killed at least one person in California, and a listeria outbreak that left an infant dead in California and nine people hospitalized across four different states, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The E. coli outbreak is linked to multiple different food brands while the listeria outbreak stemmed from a line of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold by Yu-Shang Foods.