586

Site number:

586

Authors:

IBC, GGGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1990/01/26

Reason Sampled:

Soil moisture and permafrost investigations

Description:

SE of the Marble Point Helo facility buildings, on the lower slopes of a west facing side of a ridge; on a gently sloping shelf between rock outcrops

Altitude:

70 m

Aspect:

W

Slope:

3 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

74 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

74cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The land surface is an 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; marble outcrops nearby and underlies the soil; underlying weathered material may be a remnant of an older surface

Patterned ground:

Nil at surface but a filled wedge extends to the present surface

Surface weathering or surface features:

Patchy salt distribution; moderately developed pavement; some patches of brownish more oxidised soil at the surface

Soil

Soil parent material:

Pale coloured till, over older weathered till containing traces of volcanic ash, overlying marble bedrock

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

6 1/5 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous

Biological activity:

Nil