assessment of environmental impacts from past human activities at Vanda Station; a site which has probably undergone little disturbance and was sampled for comparison with obviously disturbed sites
Description:
approximately 75m S of the main Vanda Station building on the western side of a sloping gully and approximately 5m away from soil site 676; on a lamprophyre dyke
Altitude:
94 m
Aspect:
SE
Slope:
10 °
Location Data
Observer
IBC
GGC
GPS
No
Latitude Longitude DMS
75° 50' S 166° 45' E
77° 0.0' S 161° 40.0' E
Latitude Longitude DD
-75.83 166.75
-77.000 161.667
Latitude longitude precision DD
0.08 0.04
0.008 0.008
Locality
Vanda Station, Wright Valley at the eastern end of Lake Vanda
Survey
not recorded
Climate
Soil climate zone:
central mountain
Estimated mean annual temperature:
-20
°C
Frozen ground depth:
35 ~ cm
Frozen type:
dry frozen
Frozen comment:
~35cm
Geology
Geological setting:
the rocks of the area are granodiorites that have been cut with lamprophyre dykes and form a strongly undulating ridge and gully topography as a result of ice over riding from down-valley and up-valley glaciations and to a lesser extent, subaerial weathering; at this site, strongly fragmented lamprophyre dyke rock outcrops
Patterned ground:
Surface weathering or surface features:
a pavement of hard unstained lamprophyre rocks, in part wind abraded with some ventiforms
Soil
Soil parent material:
strongly fragmented, dark coloured mainly cobbly lamprophyre dyke rock with a matrix of quartzofeldspathic wind-blown sand
Previous disturbance:
no evidence of direct disposal of wastes but the site has been disturbed by vehicle trafficking and other human activities