BUILD ENERGY
The heart of the apparatus is a flywheel, a device that stores energy mechanically by spinning at high speeds. It’s driven by a 100hp motor that can reach 3,300 rpm within 1/10 of a second. The flywheel connects to a central shaft.An additional shaft connects the clutch to a four-inch-diameter cylindrical block of granite or dolomite, which spins in sync with the flywheel. Researchers use the granite and dolomite as proxies for rocks in the Earth’s crust.
Sensors next to and within the rock monitor how the material deforms, grinds, and heats up during the simulation [see inset, above]. For example, infrared sensors and thermocouples measure rock temperature, while other sensors measure how fast the rock spins.
MODEL THE FAULT
To model earthquakes of varying magnitude, researchers start by spinning the flywheel at a given speed; a faster flywheel means a bigger quake. The researchers then disengage it from the motor, letting the flywheel spin on its own stored power.Immediately afterward, the clutch engages, and the attached block of granite starts to spin. It grinds into a stationary block of rock positioned above. Where both rocks meet is the experimental fault.
At the experimental fault, the spinning rock transfers some of its kinetic energy to the stationary one, and they begin to grind and slip past each other—an earthquake in miniature.
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