14 DAY TRIAL // A series of cryoseisms – the scientific term for frost quakes – was recently reported across Toronto and Ontario, in Canada. These small tremors, which can sometimes be intense enough to rattle homes and over-tout nerves, occur due to changes triggered in the ground by extremely-low temperatures.
Areas around Toronto and Ontario experienced temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius (-4 ºF) over the past few days, which led to underground water and moisture freezing. This usually happens just before morning, and the phenomenon is accompanied by loud booms that scare residents senseless.
In some instances, the frost quakes are so strong that they begin to rattle buildings, though with a strength much lower than that of a moderate-intensity earthquake. Also unlike conventional tremors, cryoseisms have only local effects, as they do not produce moving shock waves that travel over great distances, RT reports.
This means that only residents within a few hundred meters of the location where the frost quake occurs feel and hear anything. For people living farther away, it is business as usual. Cryoseisms are usually very rare, too. The recent series of events is the first to hit Canada in more than 30 years, scientists say.