690

Site number:

690

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1992/12/27

Reason Sampled:

assessment of environmental impacts from past human activities at Vanda Station; sampled at a more remote site near Vanda Station to provide an assessment of the properties of an uncontaminated soil

Description:

approximately 46m west of the wind sock at the south end of a narrow elongated gully, on the sloping floor of the gully

Altitude:

95 m

Aspect:

NE

Slope:

4 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

central mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-20 °C

Frozen ground depth:

35 ~

Frozen type:

dry frozen

Frozen comment:

~35

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; subsequent to glaciation, the terrain has been subjected to drowning and emergence from fluctuating lake levels from Lake Vanda with some sorting or resorting of surficial materials; crumbled granodiorite bedrock occurs at this site

Patterned ground:

Surface weathering or surface features:

a pebble pavement of subangular to subrounded clasts

Soil

Soil parent material:

sandy pebble gravel over disaggregated granodiorite bedrock

Previous disturbance:

probably only light foot trafficking

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

xerous; the soil surface is occasionally moistened by summer snowfall;

Biological activity: