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What are frost quakes? | kare11.com
People around Lake Minnetonka have reported hearing loud booms, along with their homes shaking. A cause hasn’t been confirmed but one possibility is frost quakes.
ORONO, Minn. — Sunday after 10 a.m., Penny Saiki was drinking her second cup of coffee when all of a sudden her home shook.
“There was a great big, huge boom and I thought something exploded. But it felt like it should have been in my basement. That’s how loud it was,” Saiki recalled.
Saiki said she wasn’t sure what came first: The boom or the shaking. But she said it lasted only a second.
Saiki, who lives on Casco Point Road in Orono, said, “I’ve been here since ’96… that’s 27 years and this is the first time I felt it.”
On the Facebook group, “The Lake Minnetonka Fan Club” other people who live around the lake also reported similar stories starting last Wednesday.
Hennepin County dispatch said they have not received any calls related to the sound. While a cause has not been confirmed, some online speculated that frostquakes could be behind the mysterious booms.
“Effectively, what’s happening is you have frozen ground, because there’s some water in the soil that freezes and the whole ground is frozen, and all of a sudden a crack forms really rapidly. When that happens, that releases energy that sometimes you can hear, and that’s the boom. And sometimes it causes shaking,” explained Lars Hansen, associate professor in the Earth & Environmental Sciences department at the University of Minnesota.
Hansen said frostquakes need a combination of favorable moisture levels in the soil and rapidly changing temperatures. This month we had snow, followed by temperatures above freezing, before Arctic air moved in.
“Anytime there are big changes in temperature, then the frozen ground is trying to expand or contract depending on whether or not it’s heating or cooling. When it does, that builds up stress that then can be released through a crack,” Hansen said. “So really any sort of rapid temperature change could lead to this but it seems more likely to happen when it’s cooling off rapidly.”
CNN reported that frostquakes were felt around Chicago last week. Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford told CNN there is no formal reporting system for frostquakes.
Frostquakes typically happen when there is little snow to insulate the ground.
“Your frozen ground needs to be susceptible to these changes in temperature… if it’s buffered from that by snowpack, then you’re less likely to have these cracks forming,” Hansen said.
Sometimes a frost quake will be visible with a crack in the ground while at other times it won’t be. Hansen said frostquakes seem to be less prevalent in Minnesota.
Frost quakes are different from ice quakes.
“Ice quakes will happen in frozen lakes and a lot of people are probably really familiar with this where in the mornings or evenings, just due to the expansion or contraction of the ice, it’ll form cracks and you can hear them opening and moving through the lake. But you’ll notice that that’s more frequent when the temperatures are changing. So same idea except that’s ice on the surface of a lake, as opposed to the frozen soil on the ground,” Hansen said.
Saiki said it does not appear there is any damage to her home.
“It is really wild. And it’s… nature and it’s the first time I’ve heard it. So it was like… what a freak of nature,” said Saiki, laughing.
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MINNEAPOLIS — Following the shooting between two neighbors, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to request that the city’s auditor conduct an independent investigation into the incidents and cases between Davis Moturi and John Sawchak.
Moturi was allegedly shot by his neighbor, Sawchak, on Wednesday, Oct. 23 but Minneapolis police did not arrest Sawchak until days later.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara defended not arresting Sawchak sooner, calling it a “high-risk” situation. O’Hara later said the victim, who had complained about harassment from Sawchak for months, was failed by police. Sawchak was arrested this past weekend after an hours-long standoff.
Moturi suffered a fractured spine, two broken ribs, and a concussion in the shooting. “Mr. Moturi’s life matters and I’m sorry that for nearly a year, MPD did not treat it like it did,” said Council Member Robin Wonsley in a news release, “Today’s vote affirms that the City Council is committed to taking meaningful actions towards accountability and restoration, starting with this independent review.”
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“Mayor Frey fully supports an independent review of this incident. The mayor and City are committed to always doing better, and this means closely examining past actions and finding where there may be ways to improve and grow. The mayor extends his condolences to Davis Moturi, his wife, Caroline, and their family and friends. The safety of our residents is a top priority and any form of violence or hate speech is completely unacceptable and does not align with who we are as a community. Brian O’Hara will continue to be the Minneapolis Police Chief.”
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