632

Site number:

632

Authors:

IBC, GGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1991/11/30

Reason Sampled:

Soil moisture and permafrost investigation; examination on beach ridge surfaces of differing ages

Description:

Approximately 155m from the coast in Arnold Cove; east from the S end of the Marble Point Air Facility; on a backslope hollow of the second clearly defined raised beach surface

Altitude:

20 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

10 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

10cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The Marble Point beach ridges are a well defined set of raised beaches; they are though to have formed due to isostatic uplift; the age may range from 10,000 years; the lithology is mixed granite, gneiss, marble with kenyite in places; the backslope sediments are sandy but may be wind accumulated

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Marble clasts are distinctly crumbled; distinct surface oxidation and crumbling of some gneiss and granodiorite clasts

Soil

Soil parent material:

Wind blown sand over beach gravel

Previous disturbance:

Human visitation with some old soil pit sites

Soil weathering stage:

1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

A moist site; soil moistened from nearby snow melt

Biological activity:

Nil at site; moss patches and cyanobacteria are common locally