The Earthquake Rose
On Feburary 28, 2001, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook the city of Seattle, some thirty miles below the surface of the earth. The quake was felt as far as 300 miles away from its epicenter. A few miles away from Olympia Washington, the ground moved a bit for more than half a minute.
According to Norman MacLeod, president of Gaelic Wolf Consulting in Port Townsend, Washington, a shop in Port Townsend called “Mind Over Matter” (which has since moved) had a sand tracing pendulum with a pointed weight at the end of a wire suspended over a tray of sand. The vibration of the quake led to an unusual phenomenon - the suspending pendulum actually drew a pattern on the sand dish that resembled a rose and was hence called the Earthquake Rose.
However the American Physical Society’s May 2001 newsletter reported that “Sadly, the Earthquake Rose is no more. Shop owner Jason Ward had intended to take a mold of the pattern. But before this could be done, his three-year-old son accidentally kicked the pendulum - and erased the sand’s design. At least Ward still has the photographs.”
Subscribe to my RSS feed for regular updates.
