A Toronto woman has created a customized map as a "public record" of "frost quakes" - unexpected booming noises and vibrations caused by the cold
Frost quakes, or cryoseisms, are caused by moisture in the ground freezing and expanding. The pressure is released with a loud bang.
Toronto residents first began noticing the phenomenon last week during a cold snap, and the noises woke many throughout the city last night as temperatures plunged to -26 C.
Graphic designer and weather-lover Ashley King made a customized Google Map recording frost quake experiences, putting out a Twitter request for people to share their stories on Friday morning. The map has grown to encompass almost 90 entries.
I'm making a map of all the places a #frostquake has been heard in the GTA. Tweet me your postal code and I'll add you to the map!- Ashley King (@lovethinkplay) January 03, 2014
"I just figured there should be a map out there as public record so that people know others are experiencing the same thing as them," said King.
King has been collecting tales via Twitter, collecting postal codes when she can, and hopes to sort the entries once more come in and find patterns in the data.
The majority of the results span out from Lake Ontario through Toronto and the GTA, but King has gotten stories from Ottawa and others from New York, Ohio and Detroit.
"In some areas people are saying it's made their houses shake," King said.
Contributors leave their postal code, the date and the time of the quake, showed when you browse their pin on the map.
Some have added comments as well, such as one person near Dundas Street East and Coxwell Avenue, who said there were at least four quakes last night between 3 and 4 a.m., "loud booms like distant bombing."
A resident of King Street West wrote that the quakes kept them up all night, and that at first they thought pieces of ice were falling on their condo balcony.
Though she works as a graphic designer by day, King attributes her interest in charting frost quakes to her hobby, weather.
"I'd be a storm chaser if I could drive," she said. "We know so little about the world that it's so interesting to see these dynamics."
King was hoping to hear a frost quake herself and got her wish from her apartment at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue on Tuesday night. She heard one quake at 10 p.m., another at midnight and was woken up by the loudest one at 5 a.m..
"It sounded like two bowling balls were being crashed together," she said.
She found it reassuring to go on Twitter and see other people in her area reacting to the same noise at the same time. The #frostquake hashtag has been full of people sharing their experiences and reacting to the weather.
Lot's of #frostquake pings and pops all evening at my condo in the Yonge and Eglinton area @ CityNatasha- Akash (@akashs) January 07, 2014
"That's the point of the map, so that people don't think they're crazy," said King.
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