Ice Quake Causes 100-Foot-Long Driveway Crack

A weather phenomenon known as an ice quake has left a Waupun, Wisc., family with a giant, 100-foot long crack in their rural driveway.

Dennis Olsen heard an explosive sound last week and thought his garage might have blown up. That wasn’t the case. Then he checked his basement, thinking a wall had split. Everything looked fine.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Olsen discovered the driveway fissure. He called the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies knew actually what happened because other residents in the area had experienced the same booming sounds of an ice quake. It results from water freezing and expanding in the soil and bedrock.

Olsen tells Action Reporter Media it’s the first time he’s ever seen the effects of an ice quake.