568

Site number:

568

Authors:

IBC, GGGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1990/01/20

Reason Sampled:

Permafrost and soil moisture investigations

Description:

Northeastern end of old Marble Point runway surface, about 100m from the end, and on the eastern edge; the surface is the flat construction surface of the old runway and is about 50cm above the adjacent ground surface

Altitude:

70 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

62 cm

Frozen type:

Dry frozen over hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

62cm

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; the deposit at this site has been constructed from excavated materials circa 1958 as part of the runway construction

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Unweathered and unstable surface due to construction and vehicle traffic activity

Soil

Soil parent material:

sorted gravelly sand from granodiorite, marble and other rock types

Previous disturbance:

Construction fill deposited over undisturbed surface about 1958

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous

Biological activity:

Nil observed at site