For determination of sources and levels of soil contaminants around Scott Base
Description:
SS1 T1; this site is located at the southwest end of the geomagnetics area, 44m to the SW of the southernmost Scott Base Wannagan building and 31m NE of survey station 265 at the edge of the coastal cliff
Altitude:
17 m
Aspect:
SSE
Slope:
5 °
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
Estimated mean annual temperature:
-18
°C
Frozen ground depth:
45 cm
Frozen type:
Ice-cemented
Frozen comment:
45
Geology
Geological setting:
The materials comprise volcanics of the McMurdo Volcanics Formation mainly as scoriaceous lava flows; the surface materials are a thin cover of mainly fractured bedrock with addition of some glacially derived granular and pebble clasts from outside the immediate area; the volcanic bedrock has been considerably fractured by patterned ground 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:
Salt efflorescences are moderately extensive; no visible surface weathering of the scoria
Soil
Soil parent material:
Fragmented bouldery volcanic bedrock with some additions of glaciogenic finer materials, in part with some modification by slope drift processes; the surface may have been cut
Previous disturbance:
Part of the area immediately to the east of the site has been scraped for fill but has shown some 'recovery' due to ice wedge melt out and expression of patterned ground formation; the old disturbed surface is not markedly different in colour from nearby undisturbed soil