583

Site number:

583

Authors:

IBC, GGGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1990/01/24

Reason Sampled:

Permafrost and soil moisture investigation

Description:

Western side of old construction camp on an embankment 3.5m wide constructed as part of a water ponding and drainage system; the site is on the crest of the embankment and was examined to determine if ice-cemented permafrost had formed following the earth disturbance in the late 1950's

Altitude:

65 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

87 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

at the centre but 47cm and 60cm on either side

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

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Unweathered, small solifluction flows on the side of the embankment, patchy surface salt precipitations

Soil

Soil parent material:

Bouldery sandy gravel till from predominantly marble and gneiss and granodiorite reworked by construction activity to form an embankment approximately 70cm above the surrounding surface

Previous disturbance:

Construction activity for hydrological control

Soil weathering stage:

1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous, dry in upper 30cm but moist below

Biological activity:

Some algae and moss patches nearby