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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for September 24, 1999
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mofette [n. moh-FET]
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A hole in the ground from which gases emerge is a mofette. Usually,
the word refers to holes that release carbon dioxide, possibly
combined with smelly gases like hydrogen sulfide. The gas that
emerges from the hole is also called mofette. Mofettes typically
form in the last stages of volcanic action.
Most mofettes have a musty, dank, moldy smell. In Italian, there is
muffa (mold) and its diminutive, moffetta, which migrated into French
and then English to describe smelly gaseous exhalations. More
recently, the word was applied to the geological source of such gases.
The gases that emerge from a mofette might be described as mephitic
[adj. muh-FIT-ik] (poisonous; foul-smelling). Strangely, this
similar-sounding word is unrelated. It comes from the Latin mephitis
(poisonous gas emitted from the earth).
Today's Cool Fact is about volcanic gases:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/09/24.html
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