See a Shake Table Create an Earthquake

A shake table is not where you pick up your milkshake, nor is it furniture for a strip club. The shake table at the University of California San Diego is a stretch of ground intricately engineered to simulate various forms and strengths of earthquakes. Underground pressure pipes are constantly upgraded to cause different kinds of tremors so their effects can be studied. Tom Scott visited the shake table at UCSD to talk to the engineers and find out how it works. Then he went back to witness a test of a ten-story building with innovative architectural features designed to withstand an earthquake. So you can see that it has to be extremely strong, plus it must have plenty of redundant safety features for the sake of the engineers who work there and for the expensive items they test. Not to mention, the shake table itself has to survive the work it does.