451

Site number:

451

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1979/12/12

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

The Enterprise Hills region of the Ellsworth Mountains; on a small un-named peak at the head of Bell Valley, approximately 6km north of Parrish Pk; the sample site is a vertical cleft near the top of the peak about 600m above ice levels

Altitude:

1200 m

Aspect:

S

Slope:

30 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Inland/Coastal Mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-20 °C

Frozen ground depth:

38 > cm

Frozen type:

Frozen comment:

>38cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The Ellsworth Mountains comprise a thick sequence of folded metasedimentary rocks comprising limestones, conglomerates and quartzites dating to Precambrian; the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is believed to have fluctuated greatly in response to global sea level changes and evidence of these fluctuations should be present in the tills and soil weathering record

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

The rock outcrops have strong surface staining

Soil

Soil parent material:

Fragmented quartzitic rock with finer shaley sediments in bands in rock clefts

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6 2/3 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Soil is dry but snow is active against rock surfaces in the region

Biological activity:

Nil observed