When Scotland qualified for the men’s football World Cup for the first time in 28 years, supporters were propelled into wild celebration – and even made the earth move in the process.
According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), when Kenny McLean scored from the halfway line to seal a breathtaking 4-2 win over Denmark, who are ranked 18 places higher in the world than Scotland, the reaction at the historic Hampden Park were equivalent to a very small earthquake.
The celebrations to McLean’s jaw-dropping goal was picked up by seismic activity monitors at the Glasgow Geothermal Observatory in Dalmarnock, around 2km from Hampden Park, the BGS said.
A reading taken between 21:48 and 21:50 – when McLean’s audacious shot hit the net, shortly followed by the final whistle – was measured as a surge of between -1 and zero on the Richter scale and produced the equivalent of 200kW, enough to power between 25 and 40 car batteries.
Kieran Tierney’s strike in stoppage time, which gave Scotland a 3-2 lead, also produced a reading although not as strong as McLean’s.
According to BGS, each spike reached a peak power of roughly 200kW, comparable to 25–40 car batteries, a football moving at around 900m/s, or a minor earthquake in the region of magnitude –1 to 0.
“Every year, as many as 300 naturally occurring earthquakes are detected in the UK, but only around 30 are of a high enough magnitude to be felt by people,” a spokesperson for the BGS said, adding that induced seismic events, such as those caused by human activity such as sonic booms, are also recorded. Most earthquakes in the UK are very small and cause no damage.
A 3.3 magnitude earthquake could be felt in homes across Perthshire last month.
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Stadium events have set seismographs twitching in Scotland before, but none more so than Oasis. The band’s 2009 Murrayfield gig produced the strongest tremors in two decades of monitoring, outshaking even Taylor Swift’s Edinburgh concerts last year and Harry Styles’ in 2023.
The official attendance was 49,587 as Scotland finished top of group C and booked their spot at the 2026 World Cup alongside England. The team will now be in the 5 December draw for the tournament next summer, which is set to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The last time Scotland played in the World Cup was 1998.
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