muskeg

muskeg — 名詞

1. a type of wet, spongy ground found in cold northern areas such as Canada and Sib

1.名詞C1
釋義

苔沼

寒冷地區的泥炭沼澤

a type of wet, spongy ground found in cold northern areas such as Canada and Siberia, covered with moss and small shrubs, where the soil stays waterlogged for most of the year and trees cannot grow well.

例句

Owen lost his boot in the thick muskeg while hiking near Hudson Bay.

Owen 在哈德遜灣附近健行時，靴子陷進了厚厚的苔沼裡。

collocation: thick muskeg

The research team needed special boots to cross the wet muskeg without sinking.

研究團隊需要特殊靴子才能走過潮濕的苔沼而不會陷下去。

同義詞
  • bog

    broader term; muskeg is a subtype of bog found in cold climates

  • swamp

    wetter and usually forested; muskeg is more open and moss-covered

  • mire

    more general and literary; muskeg is a specific ecological term

文法句型

muskeg (countable) / muskeg (uncountable: the landscape type)

用法筆記

Commonly treated as uncountable when referring to the landscape type (e.g., "areas of muskeg"), but countable when referring to a specific patch (e.g., "a muskeg"). Mostly used in Canadian and Alaskan contexts.

常見錯誤

❌The hikers got stuck in a swamp.
✅The hikers got stuck in a muskeg.
💡A muskeg is a specific type of northern bog made of moss and peat, not a general swamp.

2. a thick layer of partly rotted plant material, mainly moss, that builds up over

2.名詞C2
釋義

泥炭層

部分分解的植物沉積物

a thick layer of partly rotted plant material, mainly moss, that builds up over thousands of years in the cold, wet ground of northern forests and tundra, often harvested as a source of fuel or garden soil.

例句

The workers dug into the muskeg to extract peat for heating their cabins.

工人挖取泥炭層來當作取暖木屋的燃料。

uncountable: the muskeg (material)

Tariro studied how layers of muskeg preserve ancient pollen for climate research.

Tariro 研究泥炭層如何保存遠古花粉，用於氣候研究。

collocation: layers of muskeg

同義詞
  • peat

    broader term; muskeg is a specific northern type of peat

  • muck

    informal term for dark organic soil, less specific

文法句型

muskeg (uncountable)

用法筆記

Uncountable when referring to the material itself (e.g., "digging muskeg"). This sense is more technical than sense 1 and is mainly found in geology, botany, and ecology writing.

常見錯誤

❌The peat in a muskeg is the same as garden compost.
✅The muskeg is a type of peat that forms in cold northern conditions, different from warm-climate compost.
💡Muskeg peat forms slowly in cold, wet environments and has a different structure from garden compost.