Posted on 01/03/2014 5:41:41 AM PST by Squawk 8888
Hard to believe the amount of pressure that builds up as a result of water freezing and expanding. I mean, if it can cause an iron pipe to burst... I wonder what the limitations are. Surely the force must have a limit. It of course would depend on various factors, such as how fast the water freezes (how cold the tempts are), length of time the freezing goes on, etc. It would be great if we could somehow use this force to create a mechanical device of sorts.
Frost heaving is clearly related to frost wedging but applies to a more specific occurrence ...
“Frost heaving (or a frost heave) results from ice forming beneath the surface of soil during freezing conditions in the atmosphere. The ice grows in the direction of heat loss (vertically toward the surface), starting at the freezing front or boundary in the soil. It requires a water supply to keep feeding the ice crystal growth; and the growing ice is restrained by overlying soil, which applies a load that limits its vertical growth and promotes the formation of a lens-shaped area of ice within the soil. Yet the force of one or more growing ice lenses is sufficient to lift a layer of soil, as much as 30 cm or more.
The soil through which water passes to feed the formation of ice lenses must be sufficiently porous to allow capillary action, yet not so porous as to break capillary continuity. Such soil is referred to as “frost susceptible.” The growth of ice lenses continually consumes the rising water at the freezing front.[1][2] Differential frost heaving can crack pavements—contributing to springtime pothole formation—and damage building foundations.[3][4]
Needle ice is essentially frost heaving that occurs at the beginning of the freezing season, before the freezing front has penetrated very far into the soil and there is no soil overburden to lift as a frost heave.[5]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving
More likely trees freezing. They sound like guns firing , only deeper sounding , a boom rather than a crack . When I was a kid I remember the house making loud banging noises , rafters contracting in the cold.
This was definitely in the ground- the floor vibrated here and I’m three storeys up.
I think it was a link on Drudge.
They’re sticking with their story no matter how much we’re freezing arses off.
Oh, like most people, we can drive on an inch of snow. But, what we typically get is an inch of freezing rain with sleet on top of that. Ain’t no Yankee in the world going to drive on that. I once did two 360’s on an elevated causeway over Corpus Christi Bay with an uncle who told me to trust him - he drove on snow all the time back in Illnois and Ohio. Another couple feet and we would have been over the guardrail and into the icy brink.
Go to Drudge and click on “Global Warming Intensifies”
I suppose it’s time to figure out how to copy and paste with this phone
Prior to Christmas we got the freezing rain with a couple inches of snow on top - it was a mess.
Best to just stay home by the fire.
Link via Drudge: “Global Warming Intensifies”
It’s what came up when I clicked on “Global Warming Intensifies”
We’ve been having these (they’re called cryoseisms) for the last could of weeks. A couple of them have shaken the house so hard that I thought someone had driven their car into the house.
“I’m only 33 but I’ve never heard of “frost quakes.”
—
I’m 81 and never heard of them.
Most interesting.
.
THE ACQUITTAL OF CARBON DIOXIDE
by Jeffrey A. Glassman, PhD
ABSTRACT:
"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [historically] is the product of oceanic respiration due to the well-known but under-appreciated solubility pump. Carbon dioxide rises out of warm ocean waters where it is added to the atmosphere. There it is mixed with residual and accidental CO2, and circulated, to be absorbed into the sink of the cold ocean waters. Next the thermohaline circulation carries the CO2-rich sea water deep into the ocean. A millennium later it appears at the surface in warm waters, saturated by lower pressure and higher temperature, to be exhausted back into the atmosphere. Throughout the past 420 millennia, comprising four interglacial periods, the Vostok record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is imprinted with, and fully characterized by, the physics of the solubility of CO2 in water, along with the lag in the deep ocean circulation.
Notwithstanding that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, atmospheric carbon dioxide has neither caused nor amplified global temperature increases. Increased carbon dioxide has been an effect of global warming, not a cause [historically -etl]. Technically, carbon dioxide is a lagging proxy for ocean temperatures. When global temperature, and along with it, ocean temperature rises, the physics of solubility causes atmospheric CO2 to increase.
If increases in carbon dioxide, or any other greenhouse gas, could have in turn raised global temperatures, the positive feedback would have been catastrophic. While the conditions for such a catastrophe were present in the Vostok record from natural causes, the runaway event did not occur. Carbon dioxide does not accumulate in the atmosphere."
http://www.rocketscientistsjournal.com/2006/10/co2_acquittal.html
_______________________________________________________________
So, greenhouse [effect] is all about carbon dioxide, right?
Wrong. The most important players on the greenhouse stage are water vapor and clouds [clouds of course aren't gas, but high level ones do act to trap heat from escaping, while low-lying cumulus clouds tend to reflect sunlight and thereby help cool the planet -etl]. Carbon dioxide has been increased to about 0.038% of the atmosphere (possibly from about 0.028% pre-Industrial Revolution) while water in its various forms ranges from 0% to 4% of the atmosphere and its properties vary by what form it is in and even at what altitude it is found in the atmosphere.
In simple terms the bulk of Earth's greenhouse effect is due to water vapor by virtue of its abundance. Water accounts for about 90% of the Earth's greenhouse effect -- perhaps 70% is due to water vapor and about 20% due to clouds (mostly water droplets), some estimates put water as high as 95% of Earth's total tropospheric greenhouse effect (e.g., Freidenreich and Ramaswamy, 'Solar Radiation Absorption by Carbon Dioxide, Overlap with Water, and a Parameterization for General Circulation Models,' Journal of Geophysical Research 98 (1993):7255-7264).
The remaining portion comes from carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone and miscellaneous other 'minor greenhouse gases.' As an example of the relative importance of water it should be noted that changes in the relative humidity on the order of 1.3-4% are equivalent to the effect of doubling CO2.
http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/
_______________________________________________________________
Water Vapor Rules the Greenhouse System
Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many 'facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold.
Water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Other atmospheric greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and miscellaneous other gases (CFC's, etc.), are also mostly of natural origin (except for the latter, which is mostly anthropogenic).
Human activities contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
_______________________________________________________________
Water Vapor Confirmed As Major Player In Climate Change
ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117193013.htm
Yes - that’s it! Thank you.
Yup! We just had our 4th hottest year.
Something tells me that’s a bunch of hooey - but these persistent BS artists seem to get away with it.
“People awakened by frost quakes’ thunderous booms”
I woke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain’t it funny how the night moves
When you just don’t seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+seger/night+moves_20021973.html
Did in Minneapolis. doesn’t help the infrustructure is old and dated.
instead they’ll blow the money on trains and trolleys.
I think the “explosive expansion of air” explanation is in error.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_quake
Definitely. Most journos are hopeless when writing about science or technology.
Same in SW Wisconsin. Twice about 10 days ago. It has happened before, but I always forget, get up and tour the house, looking for cracks or broken windows.
OTOH, it could be the old house contracting &/or trees falling. But these sounded like they were in the house.
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