Frost quake

Discuss your weather and climate here.

Moderators: lucky1, Alchris, Kansas, Wes North Van, Laaz

Post Reply
bananieru
Seedling
Posts: 287
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:57 am
Location: Markham, Ontario

Frost quake

Post by bananieru » Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:16 am

My wife woke up in the middle of the night. This is what she heard:
"Awaken by a loud boom — thought a family member was in trouble," said a tweet by @JanineBaijnath.

Others reported hearing similar noises overnight as Toronto and much of the eastern half of the country were under an extreme cold weather alert.

Scotland said what they heard may have been the result of a weather phenomenon called a cryoseism, often referred to as an "ice quake."

The boom is caused when water in the ground expands in extreme cold

"All of a sudden that ice starts to expand — it's like having a lid on top of a bottle, that pressure builds and builds until finally something gives, the ice expands, the pressure is released, the ground cracks and we hear what sounds or even feels like a very localized earthquake," said Scotland.

"This is not an earthquake. It's ice expanding under the ground, and it leads to a loud boom and gets folks pretty scared when it happens in the middle of the night. Very rare, very cool but very scary."
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/1.2482615


<img src="http://weathersticker.wunderground.com/ ... anguage=EN" alt="Palms in Markham, ON" width="160" />

igor.glukhovtsev
Large Palm
Posts: 1181
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 1:33 am
Location: Almaty, Kazakhstan, Zone 6a, 43°15′00″

Post by igor.glukhovtsev » Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:20 am

Never heard about a such phenomenon - good to know! Thanks for sharing!
<img src="http://weathersticker.wunderground.com/ ... anguage=EN" alt="Find more about Weather in Almaty, KZ" width="300" />

lucky1
Arctic Palm Plantation
Posts: 11325
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Vernon BC, Zone 5a or 5b (close to 6A!)

Post by lucky1 » Fri Jan 03, 2014 11:00 am

I've never heard of such a thing either, Tavi.
To actually hear the sound it creates, wow!

Doesn't bode well for underground pipes :?

Barb
<img src="http://weathersticker.wunderground.com/ ... anguage=EN" alt="Find more about Weather in Vernon, CA" width="160" />


If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 5 guests