Harmonic distortion apparently arising from nonlinear processes, especially coupling of the vibrator to the ground, has often been observed in land seismic operations utilizing a frequency‐modulated mechanical vibrator as a surface source. The effect of harmonic distortion is to add a long oscillatory tail to the correlogram of a single sweep for the case in which the sweep frequency decreases with time. For up‐sweeps the distortion effect appears as a forerunner. It is shown analytically that for kth harmonic distortion, the zero‐to‐peak amplitude of the distortion tail (or forerunner) relative to the autocorrelation peak when the seismogram is crosscorrelated with, the undistorted outgoing signal is given approximately by √1/(k−1)TW times the amplitude ratio of harmonic to fundamental. W is the frequency range of the fundamental sweep and T is its length. Some examples computed by crosscorrelating a fundamental sweep (generated artificially) with its harmonic components are shown to demonstrate the effect of harmonic distortion. Some results on harmonic distortion observed in field seismograms recorded in the Val Verde basin of West Texas are presented. Second harmonic distortion of the order of 30 to 100 percent of the fundamental was observed.