3

Site number:

3

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1964/10/28

Reason Sampled:

Examination of fines in polygon centre

Description:

Sloping floor of a small glacially scoured basin, near Luther Peak, a flat and damp hollow; sampled from the centre of a patterned ground polygon

Altitude:

90 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-15 °C

Frozen ground depth:

8 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

8cm

Geology

Geological setting:

Till deposited at the mouth of a glacial basin and derived from principally greywacke rocks of the Robertson Bay Group, some minor fluvial and patterned ground reworking

Patterned ground:

Moderately developed; 1-1.5m nets with well sorted coarse fragments in cracks and fine material in the centres

Surface weathering or surface features:

Surface rocks subangular and unweathered but splitting along cleavage planes, some wind sorting of surface materials

Soil

Soil parent material:

Till, mainly greywacke with some felsite and possibly some loessial material

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

2 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous, soils wet for periods with seepage of water from thawing snow patches into low lying areas

Biological activity:

Small moss and lichen patches