igloo

     

An igloo (Inuit language: iglu, Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᒡᓗ, "house", plural: iglooit or igluit, but in English commonly igloos), translate sometimes as snowhouse, is a shelter constructed from blocks of snow, generally in the form of a dome. Although igloos are usually associated with all Inuit, they were predominantly constructed by people of Canada's Central Arctic and Greenlands Thule area. Other Inuit people tended to use snow to insulate their houses which consisted of whalebone and hides. The use of snow is due to the fact that snow is an insulator (due to its low density). On the outside, temperatures may be as low as −45 °C (−49 °F), but on the inside the temperature may range from −7 °C (19 °F) to 16 °C (61 °F) when warmed by body heat alone.

Trivia about igloo

  • Home, sweet home, to an Inuit
  • It's the Eskimo term for any dwelling, not just those made of ice
  • An experienced Inuit can build one of these icy dwellings in under 2 hours
  • At the 1939 World's Fair, the Carrier Corp. demonstrated A/C in an imitation one of these domed dwellings
  • In Greenland and Canada, this temporary dwelling is also known as an aputiak
  • Name of Admiral Richard Byrd's pet fox terrier or the Arctic house he could keep him in
  • From an Inuit word for "house", this house is made from blocks of hard-packed snow