698

Site number:

698

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1992/01/29

Reason Sampled:

assessment of environmental impacts from past human activities at Vanda Station; a site which may be influenced by rising the rising water level and a steel tower

Description:

55m northwest of the Vanda Station buildings and 9m east of a tower site, which apart from the anchor rods has been removed; the site is approximately 50cm above lake level although would have been under water at the end of the previous summer

Altitude:

92 m

Aspect:

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

coastal mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-20 °C

Frozen ground depth:

40 cm

Frozen type:

hard ice cemented

Frozen comment:

40

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; the surface sediments were probably resorted by the fluctuating lake waters during the previous summer

Patterned ground:

Surface weathering or surface features:

surface pavement of angular pebbles and cobbles

Soil

Soil parent material:

sandy gravel with some accumulation of algal material during recent fluvial resorting

Previous disturbance:

the surface was probably reworked by wave action from rising lake waters last summer

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

previously xerous but now influenced by the rising water level

Biological activity:

accumulation of dried lake algae