627

Site number:

627

Authors:

IBC, GGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1991/11/27

Reason Sampled:

Soil moisture and permafrost investigation

Description:

200m N of the Marble Point Air Facility buildings on a rocky knoll; a small and low bouldery moraine ridge about 2m above the surrounding terrain;

Altitude:

65 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

50 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

50cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The surface is undulating with intermittent deposits of till; the region is an old landscape of granite and granodiorite, gneiss and marble rocks; there are some old weathering and phillipsite deposits, the land surface has been over-ridden by later Ross Glacial advances; at the site thin young till overlies gneiss bedrock

Patterned ground:

Very weak broad nets

Surface weathering or surface features:

Angular and partly rounded boulders with active cleaving; negligible surface oxidation; pavement is well developed where the surface dominantly pebbly; calcium carbonate coatings are prominent beneath surface clasts

Soil

Soil parent material:

Bouldery gravel till with sand between rocks forming thin wedges, from mixed lithology rocks

Previous disturbance:

No physical disturbance at the site; extensive prior human activity from runway construction in the 1950's; some litter and other debris

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Some snow in adjacent hollows; soil is dry;

Biological activity:

Nil at site; moss patches and cyanobacteria are common locally