November 23 – For the first time since 1998, Scotland is going to the World Cup finals, and the joy of the fans has literally rattled the country. The Tartan Army’s spiritual home, Hampden Park, is known for the ‘Hampden Roar’ and on Wednesday night in their dramatic 4-2 win over Denmark, they celebrated with such force that the British Geological Survey picked it up like a tiny earthquake.
The first tremor on the Richter scale came when Kenny McLean lobbed Danish goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, from the halfway line to send a nation completely delirious. The BGS sensors in Dalmarnock, just down the road, sent the murmur meter twitching. Then came the final whistle, and with it a second jolt. Not massive by California standards, mind you, but enough to shake a few tea mugs in Glasgow.
With two World Cup host cities located in earthquake zones, such as Los Angeles or San Francisco, stick the Tartan Army there for a fortnight and seismologists might be doing overtime if Kieran Tierney produces another curler and sends the Bay Area into the Big One!
The BGS says the readings sat between magnitude -1 and 0. Not exactly earth-shattering, but still the energy equivalent of powering the pubs of Glasgow for the evening.
Scotland waited nearly three decades for this moment, and North America will soon be shaking to the anthem ‘no Scotland, no party!’
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