Muskeg

Muskeg (or peat bog) is a soil type common in arctic areas. Muskeg itself consists of dead plants in various states of decomposition, ranging from fairly intact sphagnum peat moss, or sedge peat, to highly decomposed muck. Pieces of wood such as buried tree branches can make up 5 to 15 percent of the soil.

Muskeg tends to have a water table very near the surface. As well, the sphagnum[?] moss forming it can hold 15 to 30 times its own weight in water, allowing the spongy wet muskeg to form even on fairly steep slopes.

Muskeg is wet, acidic and relatively infertile, preventing large trees from growing, though stunted pines may be found.

Muskegs need two conditions to develop: abundant rain and cool summers. A dead plant that falls on dry soil is attacked by bacteria and fungi and quickly rots. If that plant lands in water or on saturated soil, though, it faces a diffferent fate. Air can't get to it, so the bacteria and fungi can't function well. The cool temperatures slow them down even more. All this slows decomposition, and the plant debris accumulates to form peat and eventually, a muskeg. Depending on the underlying topology of the land, muskeg can reach depths of one hundred feet or more.

Muskeg can be a significant impediment to transportation. During the 1870s muskeg in Northern Ontario was reported to have swallowed a railroad engine whole when a track was laid on muskeg instead of clearing down to bedrock. Many other instances have been reported of heavy construction equipment vanishing into muskeg in the spring as the frozen muskeg it was parked on during winter thawed.