When demolition experts press the plunger to set off explosives and implode a building on Cal State East Bay's Hayward campus they won't just be getting rid of a building that was deemed to be incredibly vulnerable to seismic activity they will be participating in an enormous experiment hoping to determine how the ground reacts during an earthquake, according to NBC News.
The unpredictability of earthquakes makes it almost impossible to set up an experiment to study how the ground moves; scientists would have to put the sensors in place and then wait, possibly for years, until an earthquake strikes.
Luther Strayer, a geology professor at Cal State East Bay, realized that the implosion could be used to study the fault immediately upon hearing of the plans to demolish Warren Hall. Strayer contacted the United States Geological Survey to see if they wanted to participate, according to the Associated Press.
"Anybody in my position who is trained like I am would have recognized the opportunity," Strayer told the Associated Press. "That's really the cool part, it was a sort of simple obvious thing and it can do so much good for our society and the community."
The location of Warren Hall, only 2,000 feet from the Hayward fault, allows researchers from the USGS to treat the implosion as a simulated earthquake. Over 600 sensors have been placed in concentric circles around the area in preparation for the blast, according to the Associated Press.
"We are trying to measure ground motion," Geophysicist Rufus Catchings told NBC News. "When the building comes down there will be a thump that will put seismic energy into the ground."
When the 12,500 tons of steel and concrete that used to be an administration building crashes to the ground it is expected to send out shockwaves comparable to a magnitude 2.0 quake. The nearby fault is expected to amplify the effect and sensors should be able to use the implosion to more accurately map where exactly the fault is, according to the Associated Press.
"Just because there is a ground break on the surface doesn't mean that is where the fault is underground," Catchings said. "It's a zone; we want to see the width of the zone. We want to see how many strands are coming toward the surface."
It will take months for scientists to analyze all of the data gathered from the sensors but when it's done they hope that they will have a much clearer idea of which areas would be most vulnerable if a major quake hits the Hayward fault, according to NBC News.
"There is a tremendous number of things we need to learn about the fault zone," Catchings said. "If we understand that then we have a pretty good idea of what will happen in a much larger earthquake."
