Inertial Forces from Earthquakes on a Hyperloop Pod

High‐speed transit (1300 km/hr) using pods traveling in evacuated tubes has been proposed. This Short Note addresses how earthquake ground shaking is changed when it is experienced by a high‐speed pod that is confined to a track. In particular, earthquake motions can cause lateral deformations of the tube that cause centripetal forces in the pod. I discuss the nature of these forces for the cases of (1) a tube that crosses a fault offset, (2) a tube that is deformed by traveling waves in the Earth, and (3) a tube that resonates between fixed points (e.g., a simple bridge). I suggest several schemes to control the peak centripetal accelerations of the pod.