COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – 2025 marked a big year for scientific breakthroughs and discoveries.
Researchers found that Taylor Swift concerts created measurable scientific activities and that gamma rays and plasma are lingering around us.
Here are some of the biggest moments of science from 2025.
“Swifties” create seismic activity
Irish researchers discovered that Taylor Swift concertgoers generated seismic activity across the globe during her concerts.
“We know that these stadiums can be impacted by these concerts and that concerts do have a very big seismic impact,” researcher Eleanor Dunn said.
Dunn said that the songs that generated the most seismic activity were “Love Story” and “Shake It Off.”
She also said the seismometers located more than 100 miles away from Swift’s concert in Dublin were able to pick up activity when some of the songs were performed.
“During the time that Taylor Swift was performing ‘Shake It Off’ in the stadium, we could actually see that same seismic signature in those seismometers that were really far away,” she said.
Researchers find a “dinosaur highway”
Scientists in Southern England discovered 166-million-year-old dinosaur tracks after a quarry worker found unusual bumps.
Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist who works with the Oxford Museum, said that the tracks remained preserved so well that those working on the project could see where the mud had changed when the dinosaurs walked on the surface.
“Finding dinosaur bones is obviously very exciting, but they represent the death of the animal. And this really is the life of the animal, it’s as it was living,” he said.
How much of the ocean is still unexplored
Scientists with the Ocean Discovery League theorized this year that only about O.001% of Earth’s deep oceans have been explored.
Deep ocean is considered to be between 200 and 11,000 meters and are commonly conducted at hot spots either off of the United States or Asia.
“Deep ocean we consider below 200 meters, all the way down to almost 11,000 meters,” said Bell. “The hot spots we’re seeing are mostly in the waters of the United States, Japan, and New Zealand… and most of the rest of the world is completely unexplored,” Katie Croff Bell, a scientist with the Ocean Discovery League, said.
Bell said that the 0.001% is just an estimate; however, some other scientists theorize that up to 10% of the deep ocean has been explored.
“We hear, we’ve seen 10%, or we’ve seen 5%, or we’ve seen 1%, and nobody’s actually sat down and done the math,” she said.
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