Peru fans celebrated a goal so hard that they set off earthquake alerts

Scoring a goal is a big deal.

Qualifying for the World Cup is an even bigger deal. But is it a big enough deal to cause an earthquake?

On Thursday, Peru beat New Zealand 2-0 in the second leg of their World Cup playoff, booking their place in the finals for the first time since 1982. Striker Jefferson Farfan put Peru ahead in the 27th minute, and that’s when something very unusual happened.

Sismo Detector is an early warning system designed to detect seismic activity and warn people about potential natural disasters. Just after Farfan scored, it registered an impending earthquake in the Peruvian capital of Peru.

https://twitter.com/SismologiaCh/status/930989605305966593

There was no reason to be worried though - Siesmology Chile (an organisation associated with the Sismo Detector) quickly clarified that was not imminent, it was just the Peru fans celebrating too hard: “Sismo Alert Detector would have activated in the District of Lima due to the celebration of Peru's goal to New Zealand.”

A statement explained that “at the exact moment” that Peru scored “the emotion of the Peruvians made the application activate” with the “ground vibration generated by the fans”.

Here's the offending goal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgQTGxWmH8

Good to know there’s still some passion left in modern football.