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Mire
A mire (or quagmire) is a wetland type, dominated by living, peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, due to waterlogging and subsequent anoxia. Like coral reefs, mires are unusual landforms in that they derive mostly from biological rather than physical processes, and can take on characteristic shapes and surface patterning.
There are four types of mire: bog, fen, marsh and swamp. A bog is a mire that due to its location relative to the surrounding landscape obtains most of its water from rainfall (ombrotrophic), while a fen is located on a slope, flat, or depression and gets most of its water from soil- or groundwater (minerotrophic). Thus while a bog is always acidic and nutrient-poor, a fen may be slightly acidic, neutral, or alkaline, and either nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich. Although marshes are wetlands within which vegetation is rooted in mineral soil, some marshes form shallow peat deposits: these should be considered mires. Swamps are characterized by their forest canopy and, like fens, are typically of higher pH and nutrient availability than bogs. Some bogs and fens can support limited shrub or tree growth on hummocks.
For botanists and ecologists, the term peatland is a more general term for any terrain dominated by peat to a depth of at least 30 cm (12 in), even if it has been completely drained (i.e., a peatland can be dry, but a mire by definition must be actively forming peat).
Mires are a kind of “…living relic… [A] living skin on an ancient body” in which successive layers of regular plant growth and decay are preserved stratigraphically with a quality of preservation unknown in other wetland environments.
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Muck (noun)
Slimy mud.
“The car was covered in muck from the rally race.”
“I need to clean the muck off my shirt.”
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Muck (noun)
Soft or slimy manure.
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Muck (noun)
dirt; something that makes another thing dirty.
“What’s that green muck on the floor?”
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Muck (noun)
Anything filthy or vile.
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Muck (noun)
money
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Muck (verb)
To shovel muck.
“We need to muck the stable before it gets too thick.”
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Muck (verb)
To manure with muck.
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Muck (verb)
To do a dirty job.
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Muck (verb)
To pass, to fold without showing one’s cards, often done when a better hand has already been revealed.
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Mire (noun)
Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.
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Mire (noun)
An undesirable situation, a predicament.
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Mire (noun)
An ant.
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Mire (verb)
To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.
“to mire a horse or wagon”
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Mire (verb)
To sink into mud.
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Mire (verb)
To weigh down.
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Mire (verb)
To soil with mud or foul matter.
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Muck (noun)
dirt, rubbish, or waste matter
“I’ll just clean the muck off the windscreen”
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Muck (noun)
farmyard manure, widely used as fertilizer
“he was covered in cow muck and mud”
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Muck (noun)
something regarded as distasteful, unpleasant, or of poor quality
“why do you let her read this muck?”
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Muck (verb)
remove manure and other dirt from a horse’s stable or other animal’s dwelling
“I was mucking out some of the dirtiest piggeries I had ever seen”
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Muck (verb)
spread manure on (land)
“half the farm is mucked every year”
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Mire (noun)
a stretch of swampy or boggy ground
“acres of land had been reduced to a mire”
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Mire (noun)
soft mud or dirt
“the roads retained their winter mire”
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Mire (noun)
a wetland area or ecosystem based on peat.
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Mire (noun)
a complicated or unpleasant situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself
“the service is sinking in the mire of its own regulations”
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Mire (verb)
cause to become stuck in mud
“sometimes a heavy truck gets mired down”
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Mire (verb)
cover or spatter with mud
“the horse waded through the red mud that mired it to its hocks”
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Mire (verb)
involve someone or something in (a difficult situation)
“the economy is mired in its longest recession since the war”