745

Site number:

745

Authors:

IBC, GGC, DSS

Date recorded:

1994/01/09

Reason Sampled:

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

Description:

SS11 T2; 31 m north-northwest of the water storage tanks alongside the track to the storage area; a smooth surfaced area that has had some disturbance from land shaping operations and which receives some runoff

Altitude:

23 m

Aspect:

NE

Slope:

9 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Coastal mountain

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-18 °C

Frozen ground depth:

32 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

32

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:

There are surface salt efflorescences around the site; the surface has fewer stones than elsewhere

Soil

Soil parent material:

Disturbed scrape and fill material formed through land reshaping activities

Previous disturbance:

The ground surface has been disturbed by scraping activities for the construction of storage areas and access ways; foreign materials are mainly wood fragments

Soil weathering stage:

6 1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Xerous to subxerous; the site is moist from seepage runoff from nearby permafrost disturbance and from surface snow thaw

Biological activity:

None observed