assessment of environmental impacts from past human activities at Vanda Station; sampled for indications of heavy metal contamination at a location where battery acid may have been discarded
Description:
1.6m east of the Vanda Station generator building and .5m to the north of the doorway to the building
Altitude:
96 m
Aspect:
N
Slope:
5 °
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, the rock is fractured granodiorite; subsequent to glaciation, the terrain has been subjected to drowning and emergence from fluctuating water levels from Lake Vanda with some sorting or resorting of surficial materials
Patterned ground:
Surface weathering or surface features:
surface materials are angular and unstained
Soil
Soil parent material:
fractured, flaggy and in situ, granodiorite with accumulations of granular sand in the cracks between the angular, fragmented boulder sized clasts
Previous disturbance:
the surface has been heavily disturbed by base activities and was reported to have been a site where battery acids were discarded; there is some indication of previous oil spillag