340

Site number:

340

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1972/12/01

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

The flat topped surface of Mt Freya in the Asgard Range; an uneven undulating rocky dolerite sill surface; bedrock outcrops are rounded with hollows along joint plains

Altitude:

2025 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Inland Mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-35 °C

Frozen ground depth:

15 > cm

Frozen type:

Bedrock frozen

Frozen comment:

>15cm

Geology

Geological setting:

Ferrar Dolerite forms prominent sills which because of its hardness persists as ridge top remnants; it has a strong columnar jointed form and joint plain weathering results in a very knobbly or boulder like surface; the surface is old and clearly has not been glaciated for a long time

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Rock surfaces are rounded, strongly stained and exfoliating; some occasional patchy salt precipitations on a few rock surfaces; between bedrock clasts, there is a crumbly thin veneer of fragmental weathering debris with some strongly oxidised material in joint planes

Soil

Soil parent material:

Joint plane weathering material, possibly a fracture zone

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Scattered small snow pockets amongst rock outcrops; some snow thawing against warmed rock surfaces

Biological activity:

Nil observed