Have you heard a loud booming noise with no explainable cause? You might have experienced a rare weather phenomenon. The greater St. Louis is being subjected to cryoseisms, better known as frost quakes. They are caused by the extreme temperature fluctuation that is occurring in St. Louis as we were stuck in the polar vortex. The booming noises are caused by water deep underground freezing at a rapid rate. When water freezes it expands, putting pressure on the soil and bedrock and causing them to crack. The noise produced can lead people to worry about property damage, but no need— frost quakes rarely cause any damage. While frost quakes are not the same as earthquakes, in unusual cases, the vibration can be picked up on seismographs. 

In the height of the cold snap, sophomore Molly Jones experienced a few frost quakes. She said that it startled her and if she hadn’t been told about the frost quake she would’ve thought someone was trying to enter her house. 

“They always freak me out but specifically one night I was up really late and I had just settled down to go to bed. There was a loud noise that sounded like a baseball hitting my house and it scared me so bad, and it happened twice. If I hadn’t been told about frost quakes I would have thought someone was breaking into my house,” Jones said.