Antarctic Cold desert, occasional lichen and moss found in the area.
Landform:
The surface has been exposed after late glacial retreat of an expanded Ross Ice Shelf.
Lithology:
The bedrock is scoriaceous flow basalt, about 1.2my old and the soil is surficial bouldery drift.
Morphology:
Somewhat gullied hill slope with an uneven and undulating surface
Description:
This site is one of three established in January 1999 in the McMurdo Sound/Dry Valley region of Antarctica. The equipment installed included soil temperature sensors, humidity sensors and a 1.2m temperature cable. Above ground measurements include solar radiation, air temperature, wind speed and direction. The site is currently not set up to automatically transmit data which will need to be downloaded annually. Instrumentation was provided by USDA (John Kimble and Ron Paetzold).
Because of the way in which Antarctic programmes are set up and funded, secure and long term arrangements need to be put in place to ensure that data from sites such as this can continue to be gathered for effective permafrost monitoring.
