Built on Shaky Ground

Reported June 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- It's an unusual event ... A meeting of art and science. But it can make for a "shaky" learning experience, especially when it comes to earthquakes.

Artist Liz Hickok shows off her scale model of the nation's shakiest city, San Francisco. It really rocks and rolls because it's made of ... of all things, JELL-O.

"It's also intended to help us realize that the world we live in and the buildings around us are not as permanent as we might think," Hickok tells Ivanhoe.

Using satellite images, Hickok studies structures like the palace of fine arts and then makes replicas. A table on rollers makes them shake. Hickok says with the shaking, you can kind of get a much more visceral sense of what might happen.

"It's a great segue into science," says geologist Eric Muller, of San Francisco's Exploratorium. Using a bowl filled with wet sand and a mallet, he shows how a quake topples buildings. Many San Francisco structures are built on landfills, areas that used to be water. The sandy sediment is unstable.

"If you send a shockwave through the sediments, it can liquefy and tumble structures over," he says.

Just like packing material in a box, when the sand is shaken, its volume decreases. "And the water rises to the surface, liquefying the surface. You can have a great building, but if the foundation underneath you starts turning into mush, there's not a whole lot you can do," Muller says.

That was one of the factors that contributed to San Francisco's damage after the great earthquake in 1906. This exhibit gives students a sense of what it was like ... And what could happen again.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Eric Muller
Earth Scientist
Exploratorium
emuller@exploratorium.edu

For more information about the science of seismology:

John Taber
Education & Outreach Program Manager
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 682-2220
taber@iris.edu

Do thunder rumbles make your dog tremble with fear? Find out how you can calm your canine..

A little-known storm phenomenon that should be on your radar for the safety of your home and family..

Forecasters and meteorologists are using more advanced technology than ever before to know when and where severe weather will strike..

Finally understand earthquakes with this Jell-O replica of San Francisco that rocks and rolls just as much as the real thing..

Wireless communication systems help emergency responders save lives..

This new way to repair ACL injuries could keep athletes in the game longer..

Uncovering prehistoric medical links between the present and the very distant past..

Do you like spinach? How about anchovies? Why some people do and some don't is all in the genes..

Find out what's causing cars to roll uphill at mystery spots across the United States..

Learn what it takes to grow bright, bold and beautiful tulips..

It will change our medical future and reshape our world down to the tiniest pinpoint.

Putting prized mechanical designs to the test in a one-of-kind fire-fighting robot contest.