Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?

Soils in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica generally comprise a surface desert pavement and a seasonally thawed active layer over permafrost. Most soils are formed on regolith such as glacial till or colluvium. Mean annual air temperatures range from -18°C to -24°C with low precipitation. The active...

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Published in:Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica
Main Authors: M. R. Balks, T. A. O’Neill
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
Published: Universidad de La Rioja 2016
Subjects:
Ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.2923
https://doaj.org/article/691cbc0fa0964a4d864c7d98aabb469c
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spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:691cbc0fa0964a4d864c7d98aabb469c 2023-05-15T13:59:42+02:00 Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic? M. R. Balks T. A. O’Neill 2016-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.2923 https://doaj.org/article/691cbc0fa0964a4d864c7d98aabb469c EN ES eng spa Universidad de La Rioja https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/cig/article/view/2923 https://doaj.org/toc/0211-6820 https://doaj.org/toc/1697-9540 0211-6820 1697-9540 doi:10.18172/cig.2923 https://doaj.org/article/691cbc0fa0964a4d864c7d98aabb469c Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica, Vol 42, Iss 2, Pp 415-434 (2016) cryosol gelisol soil temperature geomorphic processes Geography (General) G1-922 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.2923 2022-12-31T07:28:09Z Soils in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica generally comprise a surface desert pavement and a seasonally thawed active layer over permafrost. Most soils are formed on regolith such as glacial till or colluvium. Mean annual air temperatures range from -18°C to -24°C with low precipitation. The active layer ranges in depth from minimal in higher altitude, colder sites, to near 1 m deep at warmer coastal sites in the northern part of the region. Underlying permafrost may be ice-cemented, or dry with no ice cement. In some areas ice-cored moraine occurs where there is a large body of ice within the subsoil permafrost. Two examples of active gully/fan -forming events, one at Cape Evans and one at Lake Vanda are described. At the Cape Evans event water from a small lake thawed and came into contact with the ice in the underlying patterned ground ice-wedge causing the ice-wedge to melt and extensive gully erosion to occur. A fan-building event near Lake Vanda in the Wright Valley resulted in erosive and depositional features covering a horizontal distance of about 3 km and an altitudinal range of about 1400 m. Such occasional events, can be attributed to warmer than average summers, and were first described in the Ross Sea Region in the 1970s. The Cape Evans and Lake Vanda events are examples of active, rapid, landscape processes and show that landscapes are not as static as is often assumed. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Ice permafrost Ross Sea wedge* Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ross Sea Vanda ENVELOPE(161.550,161.550,-77.533,-77.533) Wright Valley ENVELOPE(161.833,161.833,-77.517,-77.517) Lake Vanda ENVELOPE(161.600,161.600,-77.517,-77.517) Cape Evans ENVELOPE(161.550,161.550,-75.100,-75.100) Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica 42 2 415
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language English
Spanish
topic cryosol
gelisol
soil temperature
geomorphic processes
Geography (General)
G1-922
spellingShingle cryosol
gelisol
soil temperature
geomorphic processes
Geography (General)
G1-922
M. R. Balks
T. A. O’Neill
Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?
topic_facet cryosol
gelisol
soil temperature
geomorphic processes
Geography (General)
G1-922
description Soils in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica generally comprise a surface desert pavement and a seasonally thawed active layer over permafrost. Most soils are formed on regolith such as glacial till or colluvium. Mean annual air temperatures range from -18°C to -24°C with low precipitation. The active layer ranges in depth from minimal in higher altitude, colder sites, to near 1 m deep at warmer coastal sites in the northern part of the region. Underlying permafrost may be ice-cemented, or dry with no ice cement. In some areas ice-cored moraine occurs where there is a large body of ice within the subsoil permafrost. Two examples of active gully/fan -forming events, one at Cape Evans and one at Lake Vanda are described. At the Cape Evans event water from a small lake thawed and came into contact with the ice in the underlying patterned ground ice-wedge causing the ice-wedge to melt and extensive gully erosion to occur. A fan-building event near Lake Vanda in the Wright Valley resulted in erosive and depositional features covering a horizontal distance of about 3 km and an altitudinal range of about 1400 m. Such occasional events, can be attributed to warmer than average summers, and were first described in the Ross Sea Region in the 1970s. The Cape Evans and Lake Vanda events are examples of active, rapid, landscape processes and show that landscapes are not as static as is often assumed.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author M. R. Balks
T. A. O’Neill
author_facet M. R. Balks
T. A. O’Neill
author_sort M. R. Balks
title Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?
title_short Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?
title_full Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?
title_fullStr Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?
title_full_unstemmed Soil and permafrost in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica: stable or dynamic?
title_sort soil and permafrost in the ross sea region of antarctica: stable or dynamic?
publisher Universidad de La Rioja
publishDate 2016
url https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.2923
https://doaj.org/article/691cbc0fa0964a4d864c7d98aabb469c
long_lat ENVELOPE(161.550,161.550,-77.533,-77.533)
ENVELOPE(161.833,161.833,-77.517,-77.517)
ENVELOPE(161.600,161.600,-77.517,-77.517)
ENVELOPE(161.550,161.550,-75.100,-75.100)
geographic Ross Sea
Vanda
Wright Valley
Lake Vanda
Cape Evans
geographic_facet Ross Sea
Vanda
Wright Valley
Lake Vanda
Cape Evans
genre Antarc*
Antarctica
Ice
permafrost
Ross Sea
wedge*
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctica
Ice
permafrost
Ross Sea
wedge*
op_source Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica, Vol 42, Iss 2, Pp 415-434 (2016)
op_relation https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/cig/article/view/2923
https://doaj.org/toc/0211-6820
https://doaj.org/toc/1697-9540
0211-6820
1697-9540
doi:10.18172/cig.2923
https://doaj.org/article/691cbc0fa0964a4d864c7d98aabb469c
op_doi https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.2923
container_title Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica
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