AC/DC Concert Vibrations Detected by Seismographs

AC/DC's explosive return to Australia after a decade away literally shook the ground at their opening concert, with vibrations strong enough to register on earthquake monitoring equipment in Melbourne.

The rock band performed at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, kicking off the Australian leg of their Power Up tour. The event drew tens of thousands of fans, whose enthusiastic response combined with the concert's powerful sound system to generate detectable ground motion. Seismographs at the Seismology Research Centre in Richmond, about three kilometers from the venue, recorded vibrations in the two- to five-hertz range, equivalent to low-level seismic activity.

Adam Pascale, chief scientist at the centre, attributed the readings to physical forces rather than airborne noise. "The sound waves that people were experiencing nearby and feeling something through their bodies, that's the equivalent to what our seismographs feel," Pascale said. "We're picking up the ground motion, we're not picking up the sound from the air. So you've got speakers on the ground pumping out vibrations and that gets transmitted through the ground, but also the...