My neighbour asked me yesterday if I heard the loud noise this past Friday. I had to admit that I hadn't, but I had just come off a series of late evenings so the timing was likely at the beginning of my deep sleep and I could definitely sleep through something at that point in the night.
She told me that night, all around the city, people heard noises at different times, and they said it was the result of a phenomenon of freezing earth after saturated soil. They call them frost quakes, and they were loud enough to wake my neighbour and cause her and her husband to search the house before turning to facebook to see what had happened on Friday January 26, 2018.
Apparently this is not the first time this has been reported in the West Island, with a wikipedia entry on the subject listing an "ice quake" at 2:30 am on January 6th, 2015. These frost or ice quakes are not to be confused with snow quakes (I name I really prefer, but is less scientific), which appears to be a dirt bike race in Europe set on ice or a delicious cookie confection. Under the heading "Snow Job" I did find a description of a snow tremor or quake in a google book called "The Indispensable Book of Useless Information". It stated the sound occurs when a large field of snow settles down on an air pocket beneath it, producing a very loud sound, possibly even resulting in a snow geyser! I'm not sure this is meteorilogically accurate, but I though I should mention it just in case it is!
I am sorry I missed it! I am glad to know that I am a good sleeper though. I am sure it will happen again, maybe still this year!
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