Igloo

For other uses, see Igloo (disambiguation).
Community of igluit (Illustration from Charles Francis Hall's Arctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux, 1865)

An igloo (Inuit languages: iglu,[1] Inuktitut syllabics ᐃᒡᓗ [iɣˈlu] (plural: igluit ᐃᒡᓗᐃᑦ [iɣluˈit])), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow.

Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only by the people of Canada's Central Arctic and the Qaanaaq area of Greenland. Other Inuit tended to use snow to insulate their houses, which were constructed from whalebone and hides.

Snow is used because the air pockets trapped in it make it an insulator. On the outside, temperatures may be as low as −45 °C (−49 °F), but on the inside, the temperature may range from −7 to 16 °C (19 to 61 °F) when warmed by body heat alone.[2]

  1. ^ "Iglu". Asuilaak Living Dictionary. Archived from the original on 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2011-07-19.
  2. ^ "How Warm is an Igloo?, BEE453 Spring 2003 (PDF)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2012-07-10.