The Frost Physical Weathering in the Great Wall Station Area

Some weathering observation sites were set up at different height and face in Great Wall Station area of King George Island, Antarctica, since 1989. Based on the data series obtained from 1987-1991, the relationship between physical weathering of rock and season, height, face are discussed in this p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Heigang, Xiong, Zhijiu, Cui
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 1992
Subjects:
Online Access:http://library.arcticportal.org/2047/
http://library.arcticportal.org/2047/1/A199202001.pdf
Description
Summary:Some weathering observation sites were set up at different height and face in Great Wall Station area of King George Island, Antarctica, since 1989. Based on the data series obtained from 1987-1991, the relationship between physical weathering of rock and season, height, face are discussed in this paper. We also compare the results to that of other periglacial area in the world in order to know the special features of King George Island in physical weathering of rock. The rock weathering in south-east face of sea stack is higher than that of north-west face in same environment. Get rid of influence of elevation, rock type, weathering time and organism, the main reason which caused physical weathering of this area is climate and orientation of rock. The King George Island of Antarctica belongs to high latitude area. The temperature time of below zero is 6-8 months in a year, so the process of freeze-thaw is restricted. Compared with other periglacial area in the world, the weathering rate of rock is middle in this area.