For determination of sources and levels of soil contaminants around Scott Base
Description:
SS12 T2; approximately 130 m northwest of the water storage tanks alongside K 140 soil contamination trial site; an undisturbed flattish surface formed by a small step in the landscape and down slope of a snow bank
Altitude:
38 m
Aspect:
SE
Slope:
9 °
Location Data
Observer
IBC
GPS
No
Latitude Longitude DMS
77° 51' S 166° 46' E
Latitude Longitude DD
-77.850 166.767
Latitude longitude precision DD
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:
Hard 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 non-continuous nets with <10 cm cracks
Surface weathering or surface features:
Calcium carbonate coatings on undersides of surface clasts; some salt efflorescences adjacent to a nearby retreating moisture front
Soil
Soil parent material:
Undisturbed; fragmented scoria bedrock materials with probable addition of local glaciogenic drift; regolith materials are probably in part formed by reworking of slope deposits
Previous disturbance:
Not mechanically disturbed but probably some minor disturbances from human activities such as cable laying etc