Real Minnesota frost boil

jon f mn · May 2, 2019

In case you've never seen one before, here is a real Minnesota frost boil.

I don't know how deep it is, but I couldn't find bottom with a 3' bar.

This one came up in the road don from my house. We can get them in the fields too and they make for interesting spring tillage.

M-MAN · May 2, 2019

Would that be a baby permafrost like in Siberia?

Case Nutty 1660 · May 2, 2019

Dang never seen anything like that here Interesting you have told me about them nice to put a pic to what you described very well to me
cnt

oldtanker · May 2, 2019

You should see what those will do to a loaded tandem milk hauler. Darn road just gives out under the truck. Stops real sudden like stuck right down to the frame rails.

Rick

Bruce from Can. · May 2, 2019

We get them some years, and they make a mess of a road surface. Once they dry out some, I have seen the Township workers dig down 6-10 feet with a hoe, and fill the hole with gravel, that seems to cure the really bad reoccurring large boil ups. I figured there might be a spring under there, and the water moves better through the gravel.

SweetFeet · May 2, 2019

I'm surprised that it doesn't look like a larger mess all around that oozing spot.

MarkB_MI · May 2, 2019

Interesting. Must be way too warm to have them here in SE Michigan.
Frost boil Wikipedia

DRussell · May 2, 2019

Are they typically the same size underground as on the surface? Or is the area underground typically larger with a smaller cap on the surface?

We don't get these where I live.

Russ from MN · May 2, 2019

I remember one spring we had black dirt come up out of our driveway, and it was a pretty decent driveway before!

MSD · May 2, 2019

Drive down most any gravel road here in SE SD and you will be plowing through bigger ones than that.

Leroy · May 2, 2019

Never heard of such a thing here in Ohio.

jon f mn · May 2, 2019

I've seen them 3' and also big enough to fit a whole tractor in. Hit one plowing one year with my 1370 case, was pulling a 6-18s onland plow. It started spinning in the sod and when I looked back the furrow wheel was gone, looked like it broke off. The tractor was on the sod and the rears had just broken the sod when I stopped. I knew what I was in for so the first thing I did was unhook the plow. Then went for a tractor to pull it out. When I for back the entire tractor had sunk completely to the frame so far that you could step into the cab without using any steps. Was lucky I had unhooked the plow or it would have required a hoe to dig it out. As it was I was able to pull the plow out and dig down to the hitch to hook on and pull it out. The next day it was dry and worked up fine. That is usually how it goes, soon as you stir it it dries out quick.

Fordfarmer · May 2, 2019

Yep... they'll stop fertilizer trucks, and sometimes graders, too. I have land on one road thats particularly bad. Two trucks and
the grader got stuck in one day.

SVcummins · May 2, 2019

Probably because so dry out west there?s not enough water to create anything like it except maybe in a river bed or lake bottom

paul · May 2, 2019

They are fearsome this spring. Usually see some, but even the tar roads are breaking open and busting up.

Went to the Hutchinson hay sale the past 2 weeks, their entire parking lot is a frost boil, it gives when you drive or walk on it, several boils are popping through. Just hard to describe you would have to see it.

The clay under gets trapped full of water, the frost is below that water can?t go away, the surface is a bit hard but there is that jello like layer of clay and water trapped between. Heavy traffic pushes down, and the jello shoots out.

Paul

Case Nutty 1660 · May 2, 2019

For sure lol

SVcummins · May 2, 2019

I was watching a kids YouTube channel and he was talking About horizontal well drilling I couldn?t figure it out but they get enough water out of the drain tiles on other fields to run a pivot ! There are farms out on the west Desert that have wells 500 feet deep takes to pump just to get water to the surface then one more to supply the pivot

johnofnewhaven · May 2, 2019

Interesting. I have never seen or heard of them. Don't think we have them here in N.E. Indiana that I know of.

onefarmer · May 2, 2019

Not everywhere but we do get some here in Clinton Co. Generally where there's more moisture and froze down a bit deeper, shaded more. I've never stopped to poke one like Jon F did though

shinnery · May 3, 2019

I don't think we get them is west Texas. No frost in the ground in winter either.

GordoSD · May 3, 2019

usually closer to rivers and cricks.

rdandersom · May 3, 2019

I had one in my driveway several years ago. I think it is near where a water line was installed to the barn in the mid sixties so the disturbance there may have been a factor. It showed up 2 years in a row probably 10 years ago until I started putting old bricks in the hole. That seemed to fix it. I also installed 2 runs of tile between the boil and an intermittent spring about 300 yards away which probably helped. The ground used to flex for about 2 feet out from my feet when walking near that spot in early spring but only a few days each year.

Real Minnesota frost boil

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