Mystery unfolds behind ‘loud boom’ heard by Montrealers on Friday morning

Facebook exploded on Friday morning as many Montreal-area residents reported hearing a mysterious boom or loud crack in the wee hours of Friday morning. Although the cause is still a mystery, Natural Resources Canada said it’s possible it could be a phenomenon known as a “frostquake.”

“They usually occur when you’ve got a couple different things going on. You need to have rain and the temperature drops,” said Stephen Halchuk, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada. “When it freezes quickly, it expands and contracts. And this can cause the rocks in the soil to crack.”

One Beaconsfield resident, Tracy Delvecchio, said she heard something similar two years ago. The noise was loud enough that she thought her house was about to topple over.

People reported hearing Friday’s possible frostquake from areas like Kirkland, Pointe-Claire, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Ile-Perrot and Beaconsfield.