A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
975 entries
pukak
Crystalline, granular powder snow on the ground that looks like salt. The dry, sugary layer that forms near the base of a snowpack through temperature-gradient metamorphism.
Etymology
Inuktitut (Nunavik dialect). Documented by Smithsonian anthropologist Igor Krupnik in his survey of Inuit and Yupik snow vocabulary.
Notes
Avalanche scientists call this “depth hoar” — the weak, faceted layer responsible for many slab avalanches. The Sámi equivalent is seaŋáš.