644

Site number:

644

Authors:

IBC, GGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1991/12/05

Reason Sampled:

Soil contamination examination; at a fire site

Description:

Approximately 600m SW of the S end of the Marble Point runway and N of Surko Stream; at the old Marble Point camp site on disturbed ground; the site was 5m W of site 643

Altitude:

60 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

0 cm

Frozen type:

Frozen comment:

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, with 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; granodiorite, granite, marble, gneiss, and dolerite

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Surface rocks reddened from fire

Soil

Soil parent material:

Sandy gravel till from predominantly gneiss, marble and granodiorite with artefacts and ash residue from earlier site occupation

Previous disturbance:

Widespread disturbance from camp site activity and subsequent attempts at site cleanup

Soil weathering stage:

1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Dry at site; no soil moistening evident

Biological activity:

Nil at site but mosses and cyanobacteria abundant in moist sites nearby