596

Site number:

596

Authors:

IBC, GGGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1990/02/01

Reason Sampled:

Soil moisture and permafrost investigations

Description:

Between Scott Base and Crater Hill, almost in a direct line, on the undulating floor of a shallow gully; this site is at the edge of a retreating snowbank on the northern side of the gully; the third of a sequence of three sites

Altitude:

75 m

Aspect:

SE

Slope:

6 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

1 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

1cm

Geology

Geological setting:

Rocks are predominantly scoria flows of the McMurdo Volcanics; Last Glaciation Ross 1 ice covered the site and traces of rocks (sandstone and granite granules and small pebbles) probably from the Royal Society Range can be found; the drift mantle is thin and patchy with bedrock a little below the surface

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Greyish unweathered surface, much surface salt in patches

Soil

Soil parent material:

Cobbly to bouldery till and slope debris predominantly from scoria with minor accessions of sedimentary and granitic rocks

Previous disturbance:

Probably no physical disturbance but some fine rubbish probably wind blown; this surface is exposed because of snowbank retreat through anthropogenic influence

Soil weathering stage:

1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Xerous to subxerous; surface moist from thawing snow

Biological activity:

Nil