Introduction
● In California, houses are mostly built on
top of the following compositions: Loam
Soil, Clay Soil, and Sand.
● You can make a simulated Earthquake
only using a few materials. My project is
made up of a motor, a tire, and a
wooden plank and switch starter with a
voltage monitor. Those are the basics of
making a Shake Table.
● Earthquakes are one of the most
dangerous types of natural disasters
that occur.
● On average 27,000 people lose their
lives to earthquakes.
● That’s why Scientists and Engineers are
working together to try and bring safer
living conditions for us. The main reason
I am doing this project is because I want
to help people choose the best and
safest option when buying a house.
Methods
● 3 different types of compositions. Loam
Soil, Clay Soil, and Sand are the ones
that were used.
● All the compositions weigh the exact
same amount 100 ounces.
● The time, certain voltage points, and the
amounts of blocks fallen were recorded
on the spreadsheet.
● The experiment ended when more than
4 or more blocks had fallen off the
house and the composition was mostly
damaged or the house was sliding off.
● Each composition was tested 5 different
times.
● The voltage went up by 1-2 volts per a
second.
● My Independent variables were the
compositions. My dependent variable
was how the foundations were affected.
My controlled variable was the force of
the earthquake.
Discussion
● The not surprising fact was that Loam
Soil would be the best because as it
was mentioned in multiple different
articles by engineers and scientists at
WSRB the softer the soil is the better it
holds up against an earthquake.
● The main problem I ran into came up
during the experiments with sand.
● The main reason for my problem was
that the house on top of the sand was
sliding right off and not that many blocks
were falling off the house. To actually
test sand you needed to have it in a
compact space which in my case was
not possible. Even though sand had the
least amount of blocks that fell, sand still
placed last in every other aspect of the
experiment making it place last place if
sand was in a compact space maybe
then it would perform better.
Conclusion:
● In conclusion, Loam Soil is the best
composition to build a house on.
● Loam Soil performed the best in the
following tests the most amount of force
needed for the composition to be
damaged and needing the most amount
of force to collapse the building and the
composition.
● The best type of composition to build a
house on is definitely Loam Soil and
falling right behind that is Clay Soil.
● The worst type of soil to build a house
on is sand.
Thank you
● I want to send a huge thank you to
Mr. Philip Mooney and Matthew
James at SSU for letting me use
their shake table.
● I want to also thank Ms. Dekleva for
helping me acquire my materials and
helping me whenever I needed help.
Sources
● Nolan, J. (n.d.). The effects of soil type
on earthquake damage: WSRB blog. Go
to WSRB.
https://www1.wsrb.com/blog/the-effectsof-soil-type-on-earthquake-damage
● Staff, P. (n.d.). Introduction to
earthquake. Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology.
https://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/index.p
hp/earthquake/introduction-to-earthquak
e