567

Site number:

567

Authors:

IBC, GGGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1990/01/19

Reason Sampled:

Permafrost and soil moisture investigations

Description:

Near an old stream channel, 150m to the west of the old Marble Point runway near the northern end; the site is on the flattish crest of a small hillock which forms part of a linear ridge system with 2 to 3m relief; the site is 4m from a patterned ground trough border

Altitude:

75 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

52 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice cemented

Frozen comment:

52cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The surface is a gently undulating till plain formed by retreat of the Wilson Piedmont Glacier; The Marble Point region is an old landscape, as evidenced by deposits of phillipsite, buried soils and oxidised gneiss, which have been covered by advances of the grounded Ross Ice Shelf; later ice retreat and glaciological features have been controlled by changes in the stranded Wilson Piedmont Glacier; the till mantle is patchy and dominated largely by locally occurring rocks

Patterned ground:

Broad nets with 20cm troughs

Surface weathering or surface features:

Clasts mainly unstained, angular to subangular, non ventiform, some granular disintegration of marble clasts

Soil

Soil parent material:

Bouldery sandy gravel from granodiorite and marble with minor inclusion of other rock types

Previous disturbance:

Site probably undisturbed by previous construction activity but likely to have been walked over

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous

Biological activity:

Nil observed at site