Fun Facts

Frost Quake

February 4th and 5th of this year we experienced record cold temperatures of -10 ̊with wind chill of -50 ̊ .These extreme temperatures caused a seismic event called a frost quake. This is when the very wet soil soaked with rain water freezes quickly and expands, thus causing fractures in the ground, rock, or in the area around frozen water. This action can make a large frightening boom sound and it might also be felt although there is no damage created by this phenomena called cryoseism. These loud booming sounds are loud enough to wake people and the vibrations are strong enough to be felt and measured by a seismograph, a device used to measure ground movement such as earthquakes.

Certain variables have to be present for cryoseism to occur, the first being a great deal of precipitation in a relatively short period that has saturated the ground deep down. The severity of the cracking depends of the amount of water present. Next, temperatures must drop rapidly within 12 to 48 hours, causing the deep underground water to freeze solid and expand. Finally, only a small amount of snow can be on the ground, for snow acts like an insulator keeping the freezing air from affecting the ground temperature and preventing the deep freeze.

Frost quakes commonly occur in Alaska, Canada, Iceland and Northern United States where the necessary weather conditions can most often be found. Glacier ice masses weigh so much that as they melt frost quakes are a frequent happening, but for other areas in the United States these seismic events are more rare which made our recent happenings so unusual and a first for us (Accu Weather).