742

Site number:

742

Authors:

IBC, GGC, DSS

Date recorded:

1994/01/07

Reason Sampled:

For determination of sources and levels of soil contaminants around Scott Base

Description:

SS7 T1; 7.7 m southeast of the south corner of the incinerator building and 1 m from a container; an uneven sloping fill surface

Altitude:

6 m

Aspect:

SE

Slope:

11 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

40 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

40

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:

Nil

Surface weathering or surface features:

The surface has not been recently disturbed; some thin patches of salt are present at the soil excavation site

Soil

Soil parent material:

Fill materials derived largely from earlier landsurface scraping and landscape tidying; includes abundant foreign materials including wood, metals, plastic etc.

Previous disturbance:

Mechanical disturbance resulting from land surface reshaping; primarily a built up area

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Xerous to subxerous; small snow patches nearby providing a moisture supply to the site

Biological activity:

None observed