Mexico's World Cup win made the ground shake
According to the Digital Platform for Early Warning and Risk Management (SASSLA), the seismometer at the Raspberry Shake station near the Estadio Azteca stadium in Mexico City detected that the fans' celebration after the goals of Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez of the Mexico team and Ecuador's net on July 1 caused a notable artificial signal.
The Mexican Institute of Geological and Atmospheric Research (IIEGA) confirmed the above information, but did not specify the intensity. Meanwhile, Milenio website quoted John E. Vidale, Director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, that earthquakes caused by energy from the crowd usually do not exceed 2 degrees on the Richter scale.
Geophysicists also previously measured two shaking matches in the city of Bergen, Norway, when the home team scored in the knockout round of the 2026 World Cup on June 17 and June 23.
According to Wired, a similar phenomenon was also recorded in Mexico's first match against Germany at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. After player Hirving Lozano's goal, the IIEGA Institute identified an artificial seismic signal, possibly caused by a crowd of dancing fans.
In recent years, experts have used the term "artificial earthquake" to describe the type of unusual vibrations that seismic systems record during large-scale sporting events or performances. However, some experts say that is not the right word to describe the phenomenon.
The Department of Geosciences at Durham University (UK) defines man-made earthquakes as "human-caused earthquakes" through activities that change geological characteristics such as building high-rise buildings, exploiting groundwater, digging tunnels, increasing oil exploitation, hydraulic fracturing or underground gas storage. Based on this definition, the vibration that the SASSLA system detected after the Mexican team's goal cannot be called an artificial earthquake. That means, to be classified as an "earthquake", ground movement must be associated with a geological process, not simply a seismograph recording disturbances.
Arturo Iglesias, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, once explained that although human activities create movements that seismometers can detect, they are not real geological phenomena, capable of measuring seismic scales or causing changes near the ground.
However, unusual vibrations due to the movements of thousands of people like in the match between Mexico and Ecuador are becoming a new research direction. According to Independent, better understanding this type of signal will help develop more accurate methods of analyzing seismic activity, making it easier to distinguish different types of vibrations.
Additionally, researchers could develop applications such as seismic interferometry, which relies on vibrations created by everyday sources to study structures near the ground without using explosives or relying on natural earthquakes. Studying this type of data also helps architects build buildings and stands that are more resistant to vibrations.