CAJ | 학술논문

Three cold desert soil sites were first found in the southern Mount Harding, GroveMountains, East Antarctica. The soils are characteristics of the widespread occurrence of surfacedesert pavement, abundant water-soluble salts, strongly stained upper portion of soil profile,slightly acid and negligible organic matter content. A 1:5 soil-water extracts analysis indicates thatthe dominant cations are Mg2+ and Na+, followed by Ca2+ and K+, and the main anion is SO42-, thenCl- and NO-3. The accumulation of water-soluble salts indicates ion transportation in the frigid andarid Antarctica environment. The distribution of the salts is related to the maximum content ofmoisture and clay mineral. Clay fraction migration occurs in the soils, which is different from that ofother cold desert soils. The upper horizons of some profiles are generally stained, namely rubifica-tion, primarily because of the weathering of iron-bearing minerals. The reddish hues of cold desertsoils have been attributed to relatively high concentrations of dithionite-extractable Fe (Fed). Theweathering features of soils suggest that the soil age of this area is 0.5-3.5 Ma. No remnants ofglaciations were found on the soil sites of Mount Harding, which suggests that the Antarctic glaci-ations have not reached the soil sites since at least 0.5 Ma, even during the Last Glacial Maxi-mum.