Mexico’s Victory Over Ecuador Made the Ground Shake. Was It an Artificial Earthquake?

The ground literally shook after the two goals that secured Mexico’s victory over Ecuador in the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup on Tuesday. Mexico’s Digital Platform for Early Warning and Comprehensive Risk Management (SASSLA) reported that fan celebrations following goals by Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez caused “a significant artificial signal” recorded by a Raspberry Shake seismograph located near the Mexico City Stadium. The seismic alert system noted on its social media accounts that “the outburst of euphoria and mass cheering produced vibrations in the local area.”

The phenomenon can even occur thousands of miles away from where the matches are being played. When Mexico defeated Germany at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Mexico’s Institute of Geological and Atmospheric Research reported that, following Hirving Lozano’s winning goal, a seismic signal of artificial origin was detected, “possibly caused by mass jumping” in Mexico.

Geophysicists have also detected vibrations in Bergen, Norway, in the past few weeks, whenever the country's team scored goals during the group stage matches in North America.

Something similar happened in 2024, when a Taylor Swift concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles generated long-duration, low-frequency signals—with harmonic frequency peaks between 1 and 10 Hz—detected by seismic monitoring sensors.

For several years now, the term “artificial earthquake” has been used in the media to describe vibrations recorded by seismological systems during sporting events or large-scale performances. However, experts say the term is not a good description of the phenomenon.

In fact, artificial earthquakes do exist and have been the subject of study for decades. Research by the Geosciences Department at Durham University defines them as “human-induced earthquakes,” caused by activities capable of altering the geological behavior of the ground, such as the construction of high-rise buildings, groundwater extraction, tunnel excavation, enhanced oil recovery, hydraulic fracturing (fracking), or underground gas storage.

Experts explain that, for ground movement to be classified as an earthquake, it must be associated with a geological process. The mere fact that a seismograph records a disturbance does not mean make it an earthquake.

Arturo Iglesias, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, explained several years ago that, although human activity generates movements capable of being recorded by seismographs, this does not imply that they are actual geological phenomena that can be measured using seismic magnitudes or cause changes in the subsurface.

Iglesias added that seismic monitoring systems are capable of detecting micro-movements in the ground, whether of natural origin or resulting from human activities. He also noted that their readings can be influenced by factors such as the location of the stations, the characteristics of the terrain, or the intensity of certain activities taking place on the surface.

“Even if a person jumps next to a sensor, it’s detected, but it’s not an earthquake. An earthquake caused by the scattered activity of fans is a joke,” Iglesias stresses.

However, the unusual vibrations generated by the simultaneous movement of thousands of people—as occurred after the Mexican national team scored its goals on Tuesday—have become an increasingly relevant field of research.

Experts maintain that a better understanding of these signals will enable the development of more precise methods for analyzing seismic activity and make it easier to distinguish between the different types of vibrations recorded by instruments. Furthermore, this knowledge could strengthen emerging applications, such as seismic interferometry—a technique that harnesses vibrations produced by everyday sources to study the structure of the subsurface without the need for controlled explosions or waiting for a natural earthquake to occur.

This article originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.