286

Site number:

286

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1970/01/10

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

Mt Rigby at the northwest side of the mouth of the Robert Scott Glacier; low undulating hills at the northern end where rock outcrops widely with intermittent cover of till; a west sloping lower altitude site on the southern slopes of Mt Rigby

Altitude:

750 m

Aspect:

W

Slope:

5 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-20 °C

Frozen ground depth:

40 cm

Frozen type:

Ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

40cm

Geology

Geological setting:

Rocks of this area include granites and a series of metsedimentary rocks; at Mt Rigby the rocks are mainly granites but the landscape has an old appearance on the higher surfaces which have been inundated by later ice advances, most probably from an expanded and grounded Ross Ice Shelf; lower level surfaces are less weathered

Patterned ground:

Weakly developed nets

Surface weathering or surface features:

Rock outcrops have some surface oxidation; cavernous weathering in places but filled with younger till deposits, indicating the weathering is fossil; staining on till boulders is weak; scattered salts beneath some surface stones

Soil

Soil parent material:

Granitic till with some dolerite, Beacon Group rocks and marble

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

2 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Scattered snow patches; some water in pools adjacent to ice edges; occasional snow thaw patches

Biological activity:

Lichen and algae observed in the general area