Ballard Pool sloshes after Mexico earthquake

Water in the Ballard Pool apparently sloshed around about 15 minutes after last weekend’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Baja, according to MyNorthwest.com. “The pool operators, staff, and others witnessed the pool lower on one side, about six inches, and rise up about six inches on the other side and actually slosh over the edge of the pool,” Joelle Hammerstad, with Seattle Parks Department, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Monday. Hammerstad told Monson that the Ballard Pool is the only pool with an east-west orientation, which may be more sensitive to earthquakes. John Vidale, Director of the Northwest Seismic Network told Monson that seismic waves move a few miles per second and although you wouldn’t feel the ground move, it would be going back and forth every 10 to 20 seconds. “Moving water in pools is the most noticeable at that distance from an earthquake,” Vidale said.