648

Site number:

648

Authors:

IBC, GGC, MRB

Date recorded:

1991/12/06

Reason Sampled:

Soil weathering examination

Description:

.5km E of the Wilson Piedmont Glacier and 100m N of the old Marble Point camp site; on a gently undulating moraine landscape and on a flat site near an old track

Altitude:

60 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal Antarctic

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

65 cm

Frozen type:

Ice cemented

Frozen comment:

65cm

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; scattered patches of weathered materials with greenish colours occur; these may be weathered granodiorite or rocks with a high micaceous content

Patterned ground:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

Negligible surface weathering; greenish altered patches

Soil

Soil parent material:

Weathered till material with distinct zones ranging from bluish green, grey to pale brown; zoning possibly partly due to ice thrusting or wedging processes

Previous disturbance:

Vehicle traffic route nearby; intermittent human visits

Soil weathering stage:

6

Soil moisture status:

Dry site with no adjacent snow patches

Biological activity:

Nil at site but moss and cyanobacteria common in the area