I LOVE unusual weather phenomena and this year’s polar vortex taught me a new one to add to my list, frost quakes. This recent article (The Deeper Science Behind Sounds And Flashes In Frost Quakes) was the background research that I needed.
A frost quake is called a cryoseism (cryo = cold and seism = earthquake). When temperatures dip below freezing, the water underground freezes. In the same way that water that freezes and thaws in a crack in the sidewalk will overtime, widen the crack. The pressure of all that frozen water inside the ground eventually needs to be released and it may create a crack in the Earth’s surface and a loud “boom.”
Again, the frost quake doesn’t have to be the focal point of your story but it could cause a complication or create a strange noise that no one can identify or be that perfect little factoid that you need in your story. Hopefully, this blog can inspire the next Twister (1996).
Who wants to talk more about how you can use this in your current or next story?
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