After building casters to haul earthmoving tires, real life Tonka trucks are always on our radar. Appropriately named T-Rex, this 64,000-pound, highly modified garbage truck produces seismic waves – on purpose.
Geologists are studying its effects on the soil in New Zealand, where a series of earthquakes ripped through the country, destroyed buildings and claimed lives in 2011.
With the seismic data gathered from T-Rex, engineers can design and build quake-resistant buildings where the soil is most stable. But enough talk. Watch how T-Rex pounds the ground: