Marble Hills in the Heritage Range of the Ellsworth Mountains; approximately 4km north of Mt Fordell; on a high bench adjacent to the Horseshoe Valley ice sheet with patchy till cover on undulating marble hills landscape, a flat site on a gentle ridge step, partly surrounded by marble outcrop
Altitude:
1300 m
Aspect:
Nil
Slope:
0 °
Location Data
Observer
IBC
GGC
GPS
No
Latitude Longitude DMS
80° 17' S 82° 03' W
80° 17' S 82° 03' W
Latitude Longitude DD
-80.283 -82.050
-80.283 -82.050
Latitude longitude precision DD
0.008 0.008
0.008 0.008
Locality
West Antarctica in Ellsworth Land at the southern end of the Ellsworth Mountains
Survey
US Geological Survey, 1:250 000, 1967, Liberty Hills
Climate
Soil climate zone:
Inland/Coastal Mountain
Estimated mean annual temperature:
-25
°C
Frozen ground depth:
35 > cm
Frozen type:
Frozen comment:
>35cm
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; the higher surfaces may have somewhat older till deposits
Patterned ground:
Nil
Surface weathering or surface features:
Some crumbling and disaggregation of boulders; some darker coloured rocks are strongly disaggregated; a moderately developed pavement with reduction of larger clasts; distinct salt encrustations beneath many surface rocks; well developed surface staining
Soil
Soil parent material:
Sandy to silty till of mixed lithology; marble; metasedimentary and felsitic rocks
Local snow pockets but no obvious thawing or soil moistening
Biological activity:
Nil observed
Profile Description
Horizon
Depth
Description
461a
-2
–
0
cm
surface pebbles, cobbles and granular sand; rock particles subrounded to subangular with larger clasts strongly stained and some smaller particles partly altered,
461b
0
–
10
cm
very pale brown (10YR 7/3) sandy to silty pebble gravel; weakly to moderately cohesive; pulverulent; diffuse salts and some salt aggregations; some oxidation patches; rock particles angular to subangular and weakly stained but some partly altered; indistinct boundary,
461c
10
–
22
cm
pale yellow (2.5Y 7/4) cobbly sand to silty gravel; weakly to moderately cohesive; pulverulent; scattered salt flecks; some ghosts; rock particles subangular and mostly unstained but some partly altered; indistinct boundary,
461d
22
–
35
cm
very pale brown (10YR 7/3) sandy to silty gravel; weakly cohesive; rock particles angular to subrounded and dominantly unstained