636

Site number:

636

Authors:

IBC, GGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1991/12/01

Reason Sampled:

Soil moisture and permafrost investigation; resample of 1990 site 566 for moisture difference comparison

Description:

Approximately 4.2km from Marble Point and 400m from the Marble Point Air Facility; about 300m E of the Wilson Piedmont Glacier; on a gently undulating moraine surface

Altitude:

75 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

45 cm

Frozen type:

Frozen ground over ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

45cm

Geology

Geological setting:

The surface is a gently 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

Patterned ground:

Weakly developed broad nets

Surface weathering or surface features:

Clasts mainly unstained, angular to subangular; some disintegration of marble clasts

Soil

Soil parent material:

Sandy gravel till from gneiss, marble and granodiorite rocks

Previous disturbance:

Site disturbed by previous sampling on 19/1/90

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Dry at site with no soil moistening

Biological activity:

Nil at site; moss patches and cyanobacteria are common locally