459

Site number:

459

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1979/12/13

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

Marble Hills in the Heritage Range of the Ellsworth Mountains; approximately 4km north of Mt Fordell; in a dominantly bedrock basin on the southeast side where there is a thin patchy till cover; a bouldery surface about 10m from a smooth bedrock exposure

Altitude:

1100 m

Aspect:

W

Slope:

5 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Inland/Coastal Mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-25 °C

Frozen ground depth:

30 > cm

Frozen type:

Frozen comment:

>30cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The Marble Hills area comprise limestone/marble bedrocks with an intermittent cover of till with predominantly sandstone, quartzite, metasedimentary and some ferromagnesian rich rocks; till sequences are not clearly expressed and the till which is from a non local source, may have been reworked by local ice masses

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Felsitic rocks are well stained and some are crumbled; moderate rounding; salts beneath some surface stones

Soil

Soil parent material:

Thin bouldery sandy to silty till of mixed lithology; marble; metasedimentary and felsitic rocks

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6 3/4 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Local snow pockets but no obvious thawing or soil moistening

Biological activity:

Nil observed