570

Site number:

570

Authors:

IBC, GGGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1990/01/20

Reason Sampled:

Permafrost and soil moisture investigations

Description:

On the old Marble Point runway surface, on the eastern edge, approximately 75m SE of site 568

Altitude:

75 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

67 cm

Frozen type:

Dry frozen non ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

67cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The land 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 materials at this site were formed by the addition of fill about 1958

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

A disturbed (constructed) surface without pavement development

Soil

Soil parent material:

Greyish sandy gravel construction fill from granodiorite, marble and other basement rocks over shattered basement rock

Previous disturbance:

Surface disturbed from construction activity for aircraft runway

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous, dry surface horizon, but slightly moist beneath

Biological activity:

Nil observed at site