![]() ![]() "Whenever we get really cold weather, with temperatures around zero, ice or snow on the ground or previous rain event, you'll usually hear this at night," said Bobby Boyd, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville. People often hear this noise more acutely at night because ambient noise during the day tends to drown it out. This just moved the entire lake,” she said, noting her husband Randy estimated some of the ridges to be about 8 feet high.Ice formed on a tree at the University of North Alabama on Feb. “Typically, it heaves out in the middle of the lake and there are ice ridges. In the 13 years her family has lived on the lake, she has not seen heaving this drastic or early in the season. Waidelich said rocks that were once in the lake close to shore are now 10 feet into their yard. Some of these ice heaves are just feet off the front door and porch (of neighboring homes).” ![]() “We actually watched one day where it came up a good foot-and-a-half between the time we got up in the morning and went to work and came home,” Waidelich said. Stacey Waidelich said lake ice has been inching closer to their North Long Lake home since Christmas break. Ice pushing onto shore appears to be widespread this winter with numerous reports on area lakes. “Alternate warming and cooling of an ice sheet causes additional pushing action that possesses enough power to nudge masonry bridge piers out of plum and push houses off their foundations.” “When rising air temperature warms the ice, the additional expansion exerts a tremendous thrust against the shore,” the DNR reports. As ice cracks develop, water rises in the opening and freezes, causing the ice sheet to expand. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) notes a pushing action of an ice sheet is a common cause of shoreline property damage, particularly in a year with little snow cover. These events are rare and have the potential to cause damage, although whether this can explain the damage to the shoreline on Gull Lake is unclear. “Ice quakes, usually accompanied by loud cracking noises, are caused by large shifts in ice and are most commonly triggered by drastic temperature changes,” the release states. University employees in buildings along the shore felt shaking and the event registered on a seismometer in the geology department. In 2008, one of these quakes was reported on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wis., according to a news release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The above average temperatures at the end of January could have been enough to melt the lake ice, leaving no evidence of it having been there.Īnother possibility for what the Schwen family experienced is cryoseism, or an ice quake. In Graning’s assessment, the damage to the shore probably happened in another event, when wind pushed lake ice up onto the shore. A massive ice ridge, which is created by two sheets of ice colliding with one another, has formed a few hundred feet from the Schwens’ shore. In the 24 hours leading up to the boom, however, temperatures plummeted to 20 degrees below zero.Īmanda Graning, NWS meteorologist, said the dramatic swing in temperature likely caused the lake to rapidly develop ice, which in turn can lead to stress cracks in the ice accompanied by loud sounds. If it’s big enough, it can shift the ground. A frost heave is able to damage sidewalks and can contribute to building damage. As water in the ground freezes and expands, Huyck said the result may include loud banging sounds and upheaval. “It just looked like a bomb went off underground,” Jodi Schwen said.ĭamage reports from the Brainerd area, Huyck said, sounded like a frost or ice heave. A boathouse next door appears to have shifted from its foundation and previously straight trees are protruding at odd angles. A sidewalk on the elder Schwens’ property is pushed up and broken in several places and sand on a nearby beach is mounded up where it’s normally flat. ![]() It was not until this past weekend that they took a closer look along the shore and discovered damage to structures and the landscape. Kent Schwen’s parents, Maurice and Marvel Schwen, live on a nearby lakeshore lot and experienced the same noise and vibration along with several other neighbors, some more than one-half mile down the shore. The sound was so pronounced, they immediately went outside thinking a home may have been destroyed in a gas explosion. “I’ve never been in an earthquake but that’s how I imagine it would feel.” “It was the deepest rumbling under the house,” Jodi Schwen said. 13, Jodi Schwen was watching television at her Gull Lake home when she and husband Kent heard a loud boom and felt the earth move. ![]()
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