About 2km SSE of Upper Victoria Glacier and on the northeast side of Upper Victoria Lake; a hummocky recent lateral/terminal moraine surface of the Upper Victoria Glacier; the site is a few metres away from site 136 and the sample was collected from near the edge of a small depression where salts have precipitated
Altitude:
600 m
Aspect:
Nil
Slope:
0 °
Location Data
Observer
IBC
GPS
No
Latitude Longitude DMS
77° 19.6' S 161° 33.3' E
Latitude Longitude DD
-77.3267 161.5550
Latitude longitude precision DD
0.0008 0.0008
Locality
Victoria Land, Trans-antarctic Mountains; in Upper Victoria Valley, part of the McMurdo Sound Dry Valley system
Survey
USGS 1:250 000 1986; Ross Island and Vicinity, Antarctica
Climate
Soil climate zone:
Central mountains
Estimated mean annual temperature:
-23
°C
Frozen ground depth:
0 cm
Frozen type:
Frozen comment:
Geology
Geological setting:
Tills in this part of Upper Victoria Valley were mapped by Calkin (1964) as Packard Drift; the deposits vary greatly in character and in many places may have been reworked by fluvial or aeolian processes and are sandy or fine gravelly;
Patterned ground:
Well developed 10m polygons with active 1m deep cracks and raised borders; much windblown sand in polygon cracks
Surface weathering or surface features:
A slight surface crust with a veneer of precipitated salts
Soil
Soil parent material:
Fluvially worked sands and fine gravels
Previous disturbance:
Nil
Soil weathering stage:
Soil moisture status:
Xerous to subxerous; hollows are moist but drier near the edges where salts are precipitated