Mexico stunned the world by defeating current World Cup title-holders Germany in their first match of the tournament yesterday and when fans started celebrating, they stunned seismologists by causing what scientists are calling an 'artificial earthquake'.
Chucky Lozano put himself firmly in the history books of Mexican sport by scoring the only goal of the match just inside the first half, and this is what the reaction looked like.
They are partying like they won the #WorldCup in Mexico City!!! #CDMX #Mexico #GERvsMEX pic.twitter.com/CKiBtBljIu
— Dan Vineberg (@danvineberg) June 17, 2018
Incredible scenes in Mexico City as the locals celebrate their historic win! 🇲🇽🙌#Ger #Mex #WorldCup #MyTribe #Dugout pic.twitter.com/q6zLREpq7D
— Dugout (@Dugout) June 17, 2018
Such was the reaction that local officials said it registered on the Richter Scale, claiming that an "artificial quake" was reported in Mexico City probably caused by "massive jumps during the goal from the Mexico national soccer team."
Field geophysicist and writer Mika McKinnon broke down the science of what actually happened.
Q: Is this for real?! Did the Mexico goal create an earthquake?!
A: Yes, ish.Seismometers are very sensitive — they regularly pick up seismic signals of passing trucks, crashing waves, & other vibrations. That doesn’t make crowd noise an earthquake or human-detectable. https://t.co/h69uXpFOX9
— Mika McKinnon (@mikamckinnon) June 18, 2018
Chile also picked up an artificially-generated seismic moment at the time of the key goal, hitting a ground acceleration of 37cm/s2.
Technical details: https://t.co/3AcKZgc78R
— Mika McKinnon (@mikamckinnon) June 18, 2018
Other experts also shared the seismic data which shows just how big the stomping was.
Here’s the explanation about the fan-induced “artificial earthquake” in Mexico City. “These types of events do not damage the subsoil, since they are micro-recordings that are only observable in a very small number of seismographs.” https://t.co/KrD2J0u4mN
— Kirk Semple (@KirkSemple) June 18, 2018
#Sismo artificial en la Ciudad de México por celebración de gol de la selección mexicana durante el partido contra Alemania en el Mundial de Rusia 2018.
Conoce cómo sucedió en nuestra nota de blog:https://t.co/B7GiWyX3ek pic.twitter.com/4flDw2cfux
— SIMMSA (@SIMMSAmex) June 17, 2018
One thing's for sure, you can't say the Mexican football fans aren't passionate.