42

Site number:

42

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1964/11/17

Reason Sampled:

Soil characterisation

Description:

On the southwest side and at the southern tip of Inexpressible Island; on a low undulating surface at the edge of the Nansen Ice Sheet on a young, ice-cored till surface; hummocky dirt cone surface formed through ablation/sorting processes

Altitude:

25 m

Aspect:

S

Slope:

7 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-17 °C

Frozen ground depth:

30 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

30cm

Geology

Geological setting:

Granite Harbour Intrusives outcrop widely in the region and tills are predominantly from these rocks but with lesser amounts of other rocks including Precambrian metasedimentary rocks; the till is recently deposited, weakly consolidated and poorly water sorted through supraglacial ablation reworking processes

Patterned ground:

Moderately developed

Surface weathering or surface features:

Unstable surface due to ablation of ice core; surface rocks mainly subangular to subrounded forming a weakly developed pavement

Soil

Soil parent material:

Compact predominantly granitic ice-cored silty till, reworked through ablation processes

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Oceanic subxerous, little liquid water available at present but soils wet for a short period when patchy snow cover and icey permafrost thaws and water flows downslope

Biological activity:

Nil observed