The triple gluon field strength operator $G^3$ represents the only genuinely
gluonic CP conserving term which can appear at dimension-6 within an effective
strong interaction Lagrangian. Previous studies of this operator have revealed
that its effect on gluon scattering is surprisingly difficult to detect. In
this article, we analyze the impact of $G^3$ upon top quark pair production. We
find that it will generate observable cross section deviations from QCD at the
LHC for even relatively small values of its coefficient. Furthermore, $G^3$
affects the transverse momentum distribution of the produced top quarks more
strongly at high energies than dimension-6 four-quark and chromomagnetic moment
terms in the effective Lagrangian. Top-antitop production at the LHC will
therefore provide a sensitive and clean probe for the elusive triple gluon
field strength operator.