694

Site number:

694

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1992/12/28

Reason Sampled:

assessment of environmental impacts from past human activities at Vanda Station; sampled to give indications of heavy metal contamination near station building

Description:

1.5m south of the southwest corner of the Lab Hut building near the entrance way, near where battery acids were reported to have been discarded

Altitude:

94 m

Aspect:

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

coastal mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-20 °C

Frozen ground depth:

35 ~

Frozen type:

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

Patterned ground:

Surface weathering or surface features:

surface cover is angular granodiorite cobbles, pebbles and loose sand

Soil

Soil parent material:

shallow fragmented granodiorite with sand filling fractured rock interstices

Previous disturbance:

the ground surface has been heavily disturbed by foot traffic and general base activities; battery acids have reportedly been discarded somewhere in the vicinity

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

xerous; the soil surface is occasionally moistened by summer snowfall

Biological activity: