Hearing strange popping noises? Frost quakes might be to blame

Have you been hearing loud pops around your home lately?

The temperature swings we’ve been having across the Pittsburgh area have been leading to a unique phenomena called frost or ice quakes.

Rain or snow melt seeps into materials such as rocks or the wood of your deck and that liquid freezes when temperatures drop, increases volume and then expands. This can put a strain on the materials and can cause cracking which can in turn, lead to loud popping noises.

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The tug-of-war of these materials contracting and the water inside freezing and expanding that lead to what we call frost or ice quakes. The more technical term is cryoseisms.

Cryoseisms meaning cold and seisms meaning a shaking of the Earth’s surface.

If the movement of the materials is great enough, it may be registered on a seismograph but the instrument would have to be close to where the ice quake happened because it’s such a localized event.

Woman hopes to reunite photo found at Habitat for Humanity with original owner Woman hopes to reunite photo found at Habitat for Humanity with original owner

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