Earth-shaking Machines May Help Monitor Test Ban Treaty
BYSTROVKA VIBROSEISMIC TEST SITE, Siberia -- The shaking starts as a twitch in your toes and gradually escalates to an ear-rattling rumble.
But the most important jarring is happening 600 miles away in Kazakhstan, where shaking detectors that may one day monitor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty can feel the smallest jolts made by these immense vibrating machines.
In this muddy field surrounded by rolling hills and fishing streams, dozens of devices let scientists test the seismic sensors that monitor both explosions and earthquakes and map the ground around them. This combination of basic science and practical application has attracted international funding from a group that employs former weapons scientists.
The machines shake the ground in a rhythmic pattern that distinguishes itself from the shaking of earthquakes and explosions. This lets scientists see the differences in the ground around the sensor and better trace the source of nuclear explosions or earthquakes.
"In principle, it would be possible to realize the global (structure) of the earth," said Boris Glinsky, the project's director.
The two-story-tall yellow machine shaking with 100 tons of force is filled with two heavy T-shaped weights that whip in opposite directions. This clockwise and counterclockwise movement of the side-by-side weights cause an up-and-down motion that shakes the ground like a constant small earthquake.
Another machine, looking like a giant sewer pipe lying on its side in the April snow, creates its reverberation by lifting, then dropping 50 tons of water with an air-filled spring. This design could be easily expanded to immense sizes -- there are plans for a 10,000-ton machine that could fill a mine shaft -- or be moved in the bed of a big rig, Glinsky said.
This portability is what drew the interest of scientists 6,000 miles away at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. They oversee the part of this project funded by the International Science and Technology Center, an organization dedicated to employing former weapons scientists for peaceful purposes.
The Livermore lab scientists are particularly interested in the machines' potential usefulness in testing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, said Bill Dunlop, head of the lab's nonproliferation programs. The treaty is controversial in the United States, where last year it was shot down partly because some senators argued current technology could not ensure other countries were not violating the provisions.
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