For determination of sources and levels of soil contaminants around Scott Base
Description:
SS9 T2; 2 m northwest of the passage way between the powerhouse and garage buildings; alongside the bulldozer parking area; comprises a landsurface that has been scraped for building construction
Altitude:
12 m
Aspect:
E
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
Estimated mean annual temperature:
-18
°C
Frozen ground depth:
35 cm
Frozen type:
Hard ice-cemented
Frozen comment:
35
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:
Recent surface disturbance from snow clearing activities; some thin patches of salt precipitated at the surface
Soil
Soil parent material:
The soil material consists of fill over a previously scraped surface
Previous disturbance:
Land previously disturbed by cut and fill activity for building construction;