Disruption of Sand-Wedge Polygons at McMurdo Station, Antarctica: An Indication of Physical Disturbance

• Main Authors: Andrew G. Klein, Mahlon C. Kennicutt Ii, Gary A. Wolff, Steve T. Sweet, Diana A. Gielstra, Tiffany Bloxom
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctica; periglacial; remote sensing; environment; Antarctic; Armitage; Arrival Heights; Cape Armitage; Hut Point; Hut Point Peninsula; McMurdo Sound; McMurdo Station; Ross Island; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.485.5779; http://www.easternsnow.org/proceedings/2004/klein_et_al.pdf

Sand-wedge polygons are a ubiquitous periglacial feature throughout the ice-free lowlands of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. These features were once extensive in the ice-free areas on the southern tip of the Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island. However, operations of McMurdo Station, which have supported scientific activities across the Antarctic continent since the late 1950s, have disturbed much of the local area. This physical disturbance has significantly reduced the extent of sand-wedge polygons in the area surrounding the station. With the exception of an area covering approximately 0.5 km2 on Arrival Heights, a smaller area of 0.15 km2 near Cape Armitage and other small scattered remnants, most sand-wedge polygons in the area have been disturbed during nearly 50 years of continuous human occupation. The disturbance of sand-wedge polygons was most extensive during the first 10 years of the station’s history. Mapping the presence or absence of sand-wedge polygons at McMurdo through time is one means, although imperfect, of documenting changes in the station’s “footprint ” of physical disturbance through time. Monitoring future changes in their extent can aid in assessment of whether the spatial extent of physical disturbance at McMurdo continues to grow.