Soil moisture, permafrost monitoring and soil climate measurement
Description:
A gently sloping area forming a small bench on a moderately steep slope between Crater Hill and the east coast of Ross Island approximately 150m northwest from the Scott base buildings; drill hole and access tube site located in the NE corner of the southern undisturbed part of an experimental area near the edge of a small transient snow bank
Altitude:
75 m
Aspect:
SE
Slope:
7 °
Location Data
Observer
IBC
GGC
GPS
No
Latitude Longitude DMS
77° 51' S 166° 46' E
77° 51' S 166° 48' E
Latitude Longitude DD
-77.850 166.767
-77.850 166.800
Latitude longitude precision DD
0.008 0.008
0.008 0.008
Locality
Pram Point, Scott Base
Survey
not recorded
Climate
Soil climate zone:
Coastal mountain
Site temperature profile
Depth (cm)
Soil temp (°C)
Notes
0
17
surface
Estimated mean annual temperature:
-18
°C
Frozen ground depth:
36 cm
Frozen type:
Hard frozen and ice cemented with segregated ice
Frozen comment:
36cm
Geology
Geological setting:
The deposit comprises volcanics of the McMurdo Volcanics Formation mainly as scoriaceous flows; the surface materials are a thin cover of mainly fractured bedrock with addition of glacially derived granular and pebble clasts from outside the immediate area; the volcanic bedrock has been considerably fractured by freeze thaw; the surface age is probably very late Pleistocene (Ross Sea Glaciation) having been modified by McMurdo Sound filling glacial ice
Patterned ground:
Weakly developed and without distinctive trough expression or well developed net pattern
Surface weathering or surface features:
Surface boulder clasts show some slight wind polish but no surface oxidation; pavement between larger clasts is dominantly granular-pebble sized; some thin surface salt accumulations occur near wet patches formed by snow melt
Soil
Soil parent material:
Fragmented bouldery volcanic bedrock with some additions of glaciogenic finer materials, in part with some modification by slope drift processes
Previous disturbance:
No evidence of past mechanical disturbance at the immediate trial site area but moderate foot traffic disturbance is very likely; present disturbance includes the presence of numerous particles of introduced organic and inorganic materials