With a predicted frequency of warm, wet winter air masses, the ground will remain damp and snow-free more often, so frost quakes will accompany extreme cold snaps when they do occur. According to Live Science’s Rafi Letzter, frost quakes are relatively rare events that require three conditions to occur: rain or melting snow that saturates the ground, a sudden fall in temperature that causes the earth to freeze, and ground that is free of snow, which can insulate the soil from rapid temperature drops.Īt least one recent study suggests that these subzero shake-ups could become more common, possibly due to factors related to climate change-in Canada, at least, Letzter writes. This rapid expansion pushes against soil and rock, causing them to crack, which in turn creates loud booms. I had everyone’s jackets on the table in case we had to run out of here.”įrost quakes, also known as “cryoseisms,” happen when underground water freezes and expands (as frozen water is wont to do) quickly. “I was scared and thought it was the furnace,” one Facebook user wrote. The outlet says that after posting about the possible quakes on social media, it received “tons” of responses from people who had heard strange booming noises during the night. The deep freeze may have also been responsible for the mysterious booms and bangs that gave some Chicago residents a fright in the early hours of Wednesday morning-a phenomenon known as “frost quakes,” according to CNN affiliate WGN9. A biting polar vortex has settled over the Midwest, causing frigid temperatures that have snapped power lines, grounded thousands of flights and led to the deaths of at least eight people.
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