462

Site number:

462

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1979/12/14

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

Meyer Hills in the southeast of the Heritage Range, Beaudoin Peak, about 5m below the top on a steep slope

Altitude:

975 m

Aspect:

E

Slope:

30 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Inland/Coastal Mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-25 °C

Frozen ground depth:

0 cm

Frozen type:

Frozen comment:

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; the Meyer Hills are predominantly quartzitic sandstones

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Bedrock exposures are strongly fractured and surface fragmental detritus is angular but strongly oxidised

Soil

Soil parent material:

Fragmented quartzitic bedrock

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6

Soil moisture status:

No adjacent snow patches, site is dry with little sign of soil moistening

Biological activity:

Nil observed