It was chaotic, but the 5.2 earthquake that shook the Midwest Friday morning caused no serious injuries and no major damage.
"Yeah, it was a shock," said one man from Mt. Carmel, IL, near the epicenter. "Scared me a little bit."
The quake didn't come as a shock to structural engineers at the University of Minnesota.
"Earthquakes in that area have happened in the recent past," said Professor Cathy French.
French and other U of M researchers spend their days recreating earthquakes on one of only 15 earthquake simulators in the country.
It's called the MAST System. It holds a piece of a structure, like a concrete pillar or bridge pier, and moves it around like an earthquake would, excpet in very slow motion.
"When people come in and they see it move they say did it move? I can't tell," said Research Fellow Angela Kingsley.
The movement is slow, but Kingsley said it is nevertheless an accurate replication of damage inflicted by an earthquake.
"By going very slow we actually allow the researcher to pause the test anytime they like," Kingsley said.
Pause the test, assess the damage, and then put what is learned to practical use.
"We hope that the information they gain from this will be used to improve the way buildings will be built in the future," Kingsley said.
Click here for more information on the U of M MAST Laboratory
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