  Understanding the penetration dynamics of intruders in granular beds is
relevant not only for fundamental Physics, but also for geophysical processes
and construction on sediments or granular soils in areas potentially affected
by earthquakes. While the penetration of intruders in two dimensional (2D)
laboratory granular beds can be followed using video recording, it is useless
in three dimensional (3D) beds of non-transparent materials such as common
sand. Here we propose a method to quantify the sink dynamics of an intruder
into laterally shaken granular beds based on the temporal correlations between
the signals from a reference accelerometer fixed to the shaken granular bed,
and a probe accelerometer deployed inside the intruder. Due to its analogy with
the working principle of a lock in amplifier, we call this technique Lock in
accelerometry (LIA). During Earthquakes, some soils can lose their ability to
sustain shear and deform, causing subsidence and sometimes substantial building
damage due to deformation or tumbling
