341

Site number:

341

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; the site is in a shallow hollow

Altitude:

2050 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Inland Mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-35 °C

Frozen ground depth:

26 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

26cm

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; some weathering debris, mainly exfoliated dolerite, accumulates in hollows

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 and some salts beneath surface clasts; between bedrock clasts, there is a crumbly veneer of fragmental weathering debris

Soil

Soil parent material:

Fragmented weathering dolerite

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6 4 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

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

Biological activity:

Nil observed