When SSC Napoli plays, the ground in Napoli shakes.
The well known phenomenon is called ” Diego effect “, because it was observed for the first time when the best football player ever, Diego Armando Maradona, joined Napoli.
In my Bachelor’s thesis [2012, Supino M., Festa G. and Zollo A.] I analyzed the Diego effect observed during the amazing 2011/2012 football season.
It was proved, thanks to a polarization analysis, that the seismic source was the San Paolo Stadium, and that both Love and Rayleigh surface waves were observed at two different seismic stations around the Stadium.
Most of the earthquakes were generated by the goals scored by Edinson Cavani. So, it is possible that you may have heard about the phenomenon as ” Matador effect “.
Recent observations have proved that a similar phenomenon may occur even if Napoli is playing away ! [ Look at image at the top of the description ]
2011/2012 football season
Diego effect for the UEFA Champions League match Napoli – Manchester City [ November 22, 2011 | Final result : 2-1 ].
The ticks 1,2,3 are the occurrence times of the first goal [Cavani, 17′], the second goal [Cavani, 49′] and the end of the match, respectively.
The estimated local magnitude for the 3rd event was ML = 0.4.
Scientific framework
Polarization analysis in the North – East horizontal plane for the Diego effect. The transition from the Love wave to the Rayleigh wave was observed.
The simple model we used to describe the phenomenon. It was estimated a source force equal to the weight of 24.000 people. The stadium capacity is 60.000 people. The Curva B and Curva A capacity is 38.000 people.
If you are interested in any detail, please contact me.
Mariano Supino 