The pendulum, which was on display at a Port Townsend charm shop called Mind Over Matter, features a pointed weight at the end of a long wire that traces lines in a tray of sand. Scientists believe the squiggly lines at the center of the pattern were formed during the quake's most intense trembles. At first Ward didn't notice what patterns the pendulum had recorded. Then one of my employees noticed the design. The pattern features a central design of short, squiggly strokes surrounded by curved lines that taper into an elliptical shape.
Longer lines frame the central image.
Ward says the rose-like shape was created as the ground shook the tray of sand beneath the pendulum and the curved lines formed during the quake's lower frequency waves. The longer lines that surround the pattern were formed earlier by people in the shop who had set the pendulum in swing. MacLeod has been receiving thousands of letters from people theorizing what the shape might mean. Some have said it is the eye of Poseidon, a Greek god, others say it's a rose, some have even suggested it's a recording of a top secret government weapon designed to trigger earthquakes. Seismologists, meanwhile, have their own ideas.