The Large Mobile Shaker Creates Earthquakes on Purpose

The University of Texas Austin has a truck that's built to shake the ground under it. It's officially titled the Large Mobile Shaker, but those who use it call it the T-Rex, because its effects may remind you of the earth-shaking footsteps of the T-rex in Jurassic Park. Or that annoying kid who wants to show off his subwoofers. That's cool, but why would you want to shake the ground? It's for research and testing. The research is on what parts of the country could be subject to what kind of damage in an earthquake, and the testing is for projects like construction. Builders need to know if there are soft spots and flaws deep in the ground underneath before they build something massive, like a power plant. Tom Scott talks to Professor Ken Stokoe about they way they use the Large Mobile Shaker. You can read more about this machine at the UT Austin NHERI Experimental Facility.