TY - JOUR

T1 - Soils of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica

AU - Lupachev, A.V.

AU - Abakumov, E.V.

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Soils of Marie Byrd Land—one of the remotest and difficultly accessible regions of Antarctica— were investigated in the area of the mothballed Russkaya station located to the south of 74° S. Despite the extremely severe wind regime (the average wind velocity is 13 m/s, and the maximum wind velocity is up to 60 m/s), the projective cover of vegetation in the area of the station averages 25–40% and reaches 60–80% in some places. The phenomena of physical weathering of the bedrock—exfoliation, stone pavements, residual rocks exposed by wind (hoodoos), and others—are clearly manifested. In most of the described soils, normal organic and organomineral horizons are absent. The soil profiles represent the mixture of the residues of mosses and lichens and the gravelly eluvium. The fine earth material is blown out of the surface horizons by strong winds; its residual accumulation takes place in the middle and lower parts of the profiles. The classification position of these soils is open to argument; they are close to

AB - Soils of Marie Byrd Land—one of the remotest and difficultly accessible regions of Antarctica— were investigated in the area of the mothballed Russkaya station located to the south of 74° S. Despite the extremely severe wind regime (the average wind velocity is 13 m/s, and the maximum wind velocity is up to 60 m/s), the projective cover of vegetation in the area of the station averages 25–40% and reaches 60–80% in some places. The phenomena of physical weathering of the bedrock—exfoliation, stone pavements, residual rocks exposed by wind (hoodoos), and others—are clearly manifested. In most of the described soils, normal organic and organomineral horizons are absent. The soil profiles represent the mixture of the residues of mosses and lichens and the gravelly eluvium. The fine earth material is blown out of the surface horizons by strong winds; its residual accumulation takes place in the middle and lower parts of the profiles. The classification position of these soils is open to argument; they are close to

KW - Antarctica

KW - soil formation and weathering

KW - Petrozems

KW - Lithozems

KW - regolith

KW - Russkaya station

U2 - 10.1134/S1064229313100049

DO - 10.1134/S1064229313100049

M3 - Article

VL - 46

SP - 994

EP - 1006

JO - Eurasian Soil Science

JF - Eurasian Soil Science

SN - 1064-2293

IS - 10

ER -