On February 28, 2001, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, located some thirty miles below the surface of the earth and a few miles away from Olympia Washington, moved the ground for a bit more than half a minute. Damage was surprisingly light, due, in part, to structural retrofitting throughout the region, and also to the epicenter's depth.

A sand tracing pendulum, located at a shop in Port Townsend called Mind Over Matter (since moved to Sedona, Arizona), produced some very interesting patterns.

Those of us who have done disaster relief work after major earthquakes don't often think of them as having an artistic bent, but the tracings the pendulum made during this quake demonstrate that they can be rather creative when they have an appropriate tool at hand!

We originally sent these photos in a bare-bones web page to a few seismologists, geophysicists, and geomorphologists we we thought might be interested in this phenomenon. Somewhere along the line, someone thought that this was interesting enough to forward along to friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and the occasional nodding acquaintance. We're glad they did, because the Earthquake Rose is traveling widely and rapidly...we've made new friends all over the world!

Here are some of the photos taken shortly after the ground stopped moving:

The smooth curves you see to the outside of the Earthquake Rose are what you normally see when someone sets the pendulum in motion to make a tracing...and without seismic assistance. You can see the patterns left when someone started it before the earthquake. This happy coincidence made what many people are describing as an eye...some even saying that it looks like Poseidon's eye...do you remember that he was the god of earthquakes as well as the sea?

The earthquake's handiwork is the design in the center. While it's tracery makes up the pupil of the eye, it also strongly resembles a rose, which inspired us to call it the Earthquake Rose.

According to one of the geophysicists we sent the photos to, "The images are quite esthetically pleasing. I had not thought about the possibility of creating art in this way." Our own impression is that there's something amazing about how such a massive and very destructive release of energy can also contain such delicate artistry within its chaos.

"The sand preserves two features of the earthquake waves quite nicely," according to our geophysicist correspondent.. The motions caused by the earthquake moving the pendulum's base started small, and the initial tracings were overwritten as the strength of the ground's motion increased.

Of course, once everything started to slow down after the shaking stopped, the pendulum slowed to a stop, gradually "writing" the pattern in tighter circles as it moved back to its natural center. If you look at it closely, you'll see that the pendulum was apparently centering in one spot, and then moved a final time to come to rest in a slightly different location. As a result, we're thinking that there may have been a bit of last minute settling in the ground, prompting a check of the building by an engineer.

The following two images are close-ups of the design made by the quake. We enhanced the contrast in the second image to help you see more detail.

We've had several hundred positive comments from people from all corners of the world about this unique peek at the effects of an earthquake. We were fortunate to come through this one with as little damage and injury as we did, and we hope you share our sense of awe at what beauty can come from even the destructive forces of nature. Our hearts go out to those whose experience with earthquakes has been far more painful than what we went through with this one.

Norman M^acLeod
Port Townsend, Washington