The earth moved.

Being on the pacific rim now and all, The Big One is constantly taking up space somewhere in my frontal lobes. Call it conditioning (from all those elementary school hide-under-your-desk alarms) or maybe it's the reminder from all those downtown glass condos which all seem supremely breakable. Afterall, there's constant jiggling of the tectonic plates going on around here. Take the 6.8 quake that began around Olympia, WA in 2001. But rather than rain destruction that quake drew us some pretty pictures in a sand tracing pendulum located in nearby Port Townsend. Earthquake Rose explains what you're seeing:

"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.

(Thanks again Debby)

Comments

[MT]

You call this Earth-shaking news? Oh. Never mind.