Being on the wrong end of an earthquake is definitely no laughing matter, and countries that are situated in earthquake-prone fault lines would definitely have to do their bit in terms of building regulations to make sure that most of their buildings are built in a specific manner in order to withstand most earthquakes without crumbling down. Well, France has been testing out a new seismic cloak, which is supposed to divert energy waves of the earthquake around buildings without altering them. On paper, this is very impressive, as it will carry the potential of protecting a structure completely from earthquakes, thanks to the clever use of metamaterials which will divert seismic waves around an area
Considering how seismic waves do come with a far longer wavelength compared to normal light waves, a seismic invisibility cloak should not be too hard to cobble together. Researchers from the Institut Fresnel in Marseille and a French “ground improvement specialist company” known as Menard have successfully performed the first ever large-scale tests of a seismic cloaking device. The cloak is so simple in nature, you’d wonder why it was never thought of before, as it comprised of a carefully spaced array of five meter deep boreholes. Thing is, what do you do with the redirected energy? It would be insane to send it to other countries or remote places, but rather, why not find a way to harness all that power and send it to a power generator somewhere?
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