AC/DC’s Melbourne Show Registered Earthquake Activity

AC/DC's opening night at Melbourne Cricket Ground literally shook the earth. Wednesday's concert created vibrations that appeared on earthquake sensors two miles away. They hadn't played Australia in ten years, and their return produced seismic readings between 2-5 hertz at Richmond's Seismology Research Centre.

Adam Pascale serves as chief scientist at the Centre. He said the machines tracked ground movement, not airborne noise. "We're picking up the ground motion, we're not picking up the sound from the air," Pascale told ABC News. "So you've got speakers on the ground pumping out vibrations and that gets transmitted through the ground, but also the crowd jumping up and down is feeding energy into the ground."

Fans jumping created most of the measurable activity. When crowds moved together, sensors picked up stronger signals.

"If everyone's sort of bouncing in unison, it tends to amplify the signal so we can pick it up a little bit better," he said. "Whereas, if it's sort of just general crowd motion, like even at the grand final at the MCG, we can still pick that up." People living over six miles away heard the show from their houses. Posts about the volume flooded social media all night.

But this wasn't the venue's biggest reading. Taylor Swift's 2024 concerts at the same spot generated larger seismic signals than any other musical event the Centre has tracked.

The Power Up tour has sold more than two million tickets since it kicked off in Europe last year. Every North American date sold out before the band came back to Australia, with the U.S. leg starting in Minneapolis this past April.

Melbourne Cricket Ground hosts another show on Saturday. Then the band heads to Sydney's ACCOR Stadium on Nov. 21 and 25, followed by Adelaide on Nov. 30, Perth on Dec. 4 and 8, then wrapping up in Brisbane on Dec. 14 and 18. All tour dates are listed on the band's website.