Earthquake Does Little Damage to Mall Sandcastle

During the Oct. 1 earthquake, hardly a grain slipped in the 20-foot high sandcastle at the Santa Monica Place shopping center.

“I had no idea how it would hold up in an earthquake,” said Todd Vander Pluym, the professional sand sculptor who built the masterpiece that Guiness World Records confirmed just two weeks before the earthquake as the world’s tallest indoor sandcastle.

Made strictly from water and 160 tons of sand, the sandcastle is now being described as the first sand sculpture to survive an earthquake. Vander Pluym, owner of Sand Sculptors International, built it last summer, and it will remain at the shopping center through December.