La "máquina" o "generador" de terremotos en un laboratorio universitario

Abstract

The earthquake machine or quake caster is an experimental device that attempts to model the behavior of a fault. With it, the student acquires knowledge about the complexity of certain systems, and the difficulty of predicting their behavior. Although initially this activity was proposed as an open-ended experiment for K-12 (secondaryschool) students, the quality of the data that can be obtained is such that it could be considered as an experiment in an Earth sciences University lab. The data obtained in this experience are, in a way, comparable to the data obtained in regional seismic networks, particularly the data referring to the seismicity that a certain fault or fault system generate in terms of magnitude, time and stress drop. And then there is the clear advantage that this experience can reproduce in just a few minutes what would be hundreds or thousands of years of action of the tectonic forces. Depending on the level of the class in which this experience is proposed, setting it up, in this case, as a closed experience focused on obtaining certain required results, different data analyses can be performed, above all statistical ones. These analyses will allow to find out the predictability level of a model like this. This work proposes different methods and analyzes the experimental data that this mechanical model provides