Earth Science Brian McHale
Current Event #2 05/22/14
Invisibility cloaks may soon no longer only be something from Harry Potter. A group of scientists and researchers from the Institut Fresnel in Marseilles, France have recently presented a theory that could prevent earthquakes in nuclear power plants and possibly even entire cities. By drilling a precise pattern of “boreholes” into the ground, the so-called “seismic invisibility cloaks” could alter the direction in which seismic waves travel through the earth’s surface during earthquakes. This obviously begs the question of how this is possible, and what the “cloak” will actually do. “To produce invisibility, metamaterials rely on geometric structures smaller than the wavelength of the light they are deflecting.” Earthquake waves are seismic waves, and the structures that the team of scientists used were deep and narrow holes drilled in the soil. Each hole would disperse of the incoming seismic wave if drilled in precisely the right position and location. This cloak theory was recently tested by using a “vibrophone” (not the instrument), which can vibrate the ground at up to 50 times per second. As predicted, most of the seismic wave energy was deflected by the boreholes, with only 20% reaching the energy detector.
Earthquakes have always been a major issue for civilized places because they can completely destroy entire cities and leave millions of people homeless, injured, or even dead. Just within the past few years, cities in Chile, Haiti, and Japan were demolished by powerful earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 7.0-9.0. Having these “cloaks” and borehole patterns set up in places around the world may have profound impacts on the future of earthquakes and their damage. Although the scientists are not quite ready for their ideas to be put into action, the group’s next experiment will definitely get them one step closer to their goal. The team will inflict magnitude 6.0 earthquakes, with frequencies of 2-12 vibrations per second. If these Earthquake-proofing cloaks could decrease damage done to major cities in the future, the world could be a much more secure place. “It would be a dream for me to see this done for real one day, not just tests,” said one of the scientists.
I found this article from Cosmos Magazine to be very interesting and informative on a new form of technology that could have an extremely positive impact on the world. I never would’ve even imagined that something like this would be possible. I liked the way it described the process of creating these experiments, and what the procedure of creating one of these “cloaks” is like. However, I believe that the article could’ve been structured better, and there was some vocabulary that not every reader might know. I had to look up a few words while reading. But overall, I found this article to be well-written and informational.
Dooley, Philip. "Earthquake Cloaking Could Protect Cities from Temblors."Cosmos Magazine. N.p., 28 Apr. 2014. Web. <http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/earthquake-cloaking-protect-cities-temblors/>.
I am very impressed with this technology. Who knew that simply digging a hole could prevent massive destruction by an earthquake? This is relevant to the movie we saw in class today about the earthquake in Japan. If only this technology was in place back then, many lives would have been saved. I am shocked that 80% of the test earthquake's power was eliminated by this procedure.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article a lot of questions came to mind. If the earthquakes were extremely powerful, would bore holes still deflect just as much as in the test phase? I wonder how large these bore holes have to be. And does the deeper the hole mean that there is a greater defense against earthquakes or might the earthquakes come back around to the structure? What is preventing the scientists from actually installing this? Would there be different effects if there was an actual earthquake? I too had to look up a word. I did not even know what a temblor was. Now I know that it is an earthquake.
You were very good at presenting this material and making sure we just received the information we really needed to know. You kept me reading this article by only putting in the interesting facts and other facts that would help me be less confused about what you were discussing. Also you pulled me in by making that Harry Potter reference in the beginning. What you could have done better was to give more of your opinion on the topic. Or you could have described some more parts. For example you stated you liked reading about how they came up with these experiments, but you didn’t include that in your review. Overall you did a great job and I enjoyed reading your review.
This was a very intriguing article and report. I think that the review has a good descriptions of what “boreholes” are and how a “vibrophone” is used in this theory of creating seismic invisibility cloaks. Additionally, I thought that your relevance paragraph was especially well written, because you talk about the dangers of earthquakes, and how they can influence people’s lives. As you mentioned, earthquakes are extremely destructive and can leave cities completely devastated. You briefly mentioned when an earthquake measured as a 9 on the Richter scale hit Japan. However, this was an especially devastating event because the earthquake was followed by a series of tsunamis, aftershocks, and nuclear power failure across Japan. The overall cost exceeded $300 billion, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters on record. The possibility that these so called “cloaks” could likely decrease damage done by earthquakes, and make the world a safer place, is a great goal to work for. Furthermore, I also thought that you did a good job of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the article. I agree that some of the words were complex, yet overall it was well written. I was interested in how scientists planned to use invisibility to prevent earthquakes. The idea seems a little ridiculous but after reading your report I guess that we could be learning more about it in the future. I was also found it intriguing that a “vibrophone” could vibrate the ground at up to 50 times per second. I think that your review did a good job of highlighting important features, and specifying why this new technology was so significant. I think that your conclusion paragraph could have been a little longer, but overall this was a very informative and engaging report.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article and it amazed me how far humans have come. We can alter earthquakes and save peoples lives with the new technology we come up with everyday. With the creation of these "cloaks" it brings up the question of how far can we go with this and can we get it to a point where we know when and where the next earthquake is happening. That would be amazing and it would change the world dramatically. It would also be interesting to know where they are drilling these holes and how they know to drill there. Overall I really liked how you presented the article and explained all the big science words into words we can understand. I also liked how you brought some humor into your report by mentioning Harry Potter. I liked how you brought what we are learning about from class into the real world and reported on something that was interesting to me and got me hooked into reading your reflection.
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