551

Site number:

551

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1988/01/19

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

Walcott Bay, to the south of Walcott Glacier; approximately 1km from the southern margin of Walcott Glacier and 3km from the Koetlitz Glacier; a knoll in broadly undulating topography; the crest of the knoll

Altitude:

475 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-20 °C

Frozen ground depth:

40 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

40cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The Walcott Bay area has a complex geology with basement rocks, small volcanic cones and an extensive drift mantle which include a wide range of rocks; the area was previously covered by the Koetlitz Glacier which has retreated; lower altitude surfaces are late Ross Glaciation in age; this higher surfaces mark earlier stages of the retreat of the Ross Glacial ice

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Clasts subangular to subrounded; some overturned with carbonate coatings; some slight staining of granite clasts; some exfoliation of crystalline rocks

Soil

Soil parent material:

Mixed stony till including granite, basalts, dolerite, schist, gneiss

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

The site is dry with no adjacent snow thaw patches; summer snowfalls occasionally moisten the soil surface

Biological activity:

Nil observed