Generating Mechanical Excitations on Solid Masses (Earth)

[Victordon]

Could someone please assist me with other ways to generate mechanical excitations on a solid mass(e.g earth) apart from seismic activities, nuclear detonation, use of dynamite and percusion( like use of hammer on rocks)?

The essence of this is to actually find out the resonance frequencies of Earth formations using these other means to try and achieve these frequencies.

Thanks

 

[pallidin]

Curiously enough, the methods you've already described are such to induce very strong 'shock waves' through the material, which is an ideal investigative method.

One thought that comes to mind is modifying a pneumatic jackhammer. The modification would consist of replacing the chisel end with a "thumper" plate(already exists) and being able to control the frequency of the jackhammer(likely you would need to build some sort of custom made control unit) In any event, should the resonant frequency of the ground material be higher than the maximum frequency of the jackhammer it will not work.
So, I would study first on the frequency range you may need, then, throw someone a thousand dollars to construct a custom made variable frequency jackhammer.

 

[Victordon]

lol. Thanks for this incite. looks like you could make do with more than a thousand dollars...