Earthquakes are generally considered to be nasty, rather
destructive events, but after a recent earthquake in Seattle, someone noticed some interesting patterns produced by a sand tracing
pendulum (or
Foucault's Pendulum). The entire pattern resembles an eye (some say
Poseidon's eye, for the god of the sea is also the god of earthquakes), but the
pupil of said eye, the part of the pattern created by the earthquake, looks very much like a
rose (and thus, it is called an Earthquake Rose). It is really quite pretty, and it's fascinating that such a massive and very destructive release of energy can also contain such delicate
artistry within its
chaos.
An image of the Earthquake Rose can be found here:
http://www.earthquakerose.com/images/pattern2.jpg