742a

Site number:

742a

Authors:

IBC, GGC, DSS

Date recorded:

1994/01/07

Reason Sampled:

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

Description:

SS8 T1; 44 m northeast of the incinerator building on a low knoll, probably ice cored, formed from dumping of fill and scrapings at the edge of the sea ice

Altitude:

2 m

Aspect:

-

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

25 cm

Frozen type:

Buried ice

Frozen comment:

25

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:

Hummocky ground surface caused by differential thawing of ice buried from ground fill activity

Surface weathering or surface features:

Some patches of salt are present at the soil surface

Soil

Soil parent material:

The soil material comprises fill derived from general levelling and scraping from other parts of the base area and dumped at the edge of the sea ice

Previous disturbance:

The area was probably icy foreshore and has been reclaimed as a result of earth fill dumping

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Xerous to subxerous; some snow patches nearby

Biological activity:

None observed