124

Site number:

124

Authors:

IBC, GGC

Date recorded:

1965/01/14

Reason Sampled:

Salts determination

Description:

Approximately 300m E of Webb Lake; on the valley floor on a young moraine surface; the topography is hummocky with numerous small hollows and on the slopes immediately above the floor of the hollows salts are precipitated; this sample was collected from a deposit of white salts on the floor of a hollow

Altitude:

675 m

Aspect:

Nil

Slope:

0 °

Climate

Soil climate zone:

Central mountains

Estimated mean annual temperature:

-23 °C

Frozen ground depth:

30 cm

Frozen type:

Hard ice-cemented

Frozen comment:

30cm

Geology

Geological setting:

Webb Glacier in the upper Barwick Valley has retreated and left a series of till deposits and moraine surfaces of differing ages; on the younger landscapes there is some reworking of till deposits through ablation processes with water and salt accumulations in some hollows

Patterned ground:

Nil at site but strong nearby

Surface weathering or surface features:

White surface efflorescences of salts

Soil

Soil parent material:

Young till, probably reworked by lake level changes

Previous disturbance:

Nil

Soil weathering stage:

1 (Campbell & Claridge 1975)

Soil moisture status:

Xerous to subxerous; the soils are moist in hollows and some melt pools and lake thaw occurs

Biological activity:

Nil observed