Examination of permafrost characteristic at Marble Point: Moisture content over a range of ground types

The characterisation of permafrost at Marble Point and Scott Base was conducted over a large area and beyond the vicinity of the runway. At Marble Point, permafrost drilling was carried out on undisturbed ground on a range of sites as follows: young sites close to the Wilson Piedmont Glacier,
older sites further away, wet sites where soils may be saturated at times from liqued water flows, across a patterned ground crack, on the crest, side and foot of a hillock and on a series of coastal beach ridges between 7m and 30m above sea level. Core samples were weighed, oven dried and reweighed for water content analysis. The results were compared between sites to relate observations to age, topography and drainage characteristics. At Scott Base, two holes were drilled on a wet and dry site and one hole was drilled in a very salty site. All samples were weighed, oven dried and re-weighed at Scott Base (to avoid water loss problems) and the moisture percentages then calculated.