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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1979-80: VUWAE 24

Bathymetric Data (BAS)

Bathymetric Data (BAS)

At all gravity and piston core sites in McMurdo Sound water depth was measured to an accuracy of 1 m with a weighted terylene line. Along the Strand profile, McMurdo Sound has an assymetric cross-section with the longer limb on the western side and a maximum water depth of 611 m occurring two thirds of the way across the sound. The Butter Point profile is similar. The Ferrar profile runs down the centre of the valley formerly occupied by the Ferrar Glacier. Water depths in the valley were found to vary between 200 and 235 m but 15 km from the present glacier snout there is an abrupt rise in the sea floor and water depth decreases to 125 m. Further out water depth increases again to 180 m, the typical depth obtained from many measurements throughout the New Harbour area. The shallows at the mouth of the Ferrar Valley are thus anomalous. They are thought to be due to moraines left by the retreating Ferrar Glacier. Similar moraines, now submerged, have been reported from elsewhere in McMurdo Sound (Northey & Sissons (1974); Wong & Christoffel, in press).

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TABLE 8. Piston core samples from McMurdo Sound, 1979
Number Site Lat. Long. Depth (m)
PC1 Drillsite 77 33.4 164 23 195.6
PC2 Drillsite 77 33.4 164 23 195.6
PC3 Drillsite 77 33.4 164 23 195.6
PC4 5 km west of Cape Armitage 77 51.7 164 40 139
PC5 5 km west of Cape Armitage 77 51.7 164 40 139
PC6 De Vries fish hut 77 52.3 164 30 456
PC7 2 km west of Cape Armitage
PC8 Beacon 2 strand 77 45.5 164 42.5 169
PC9 Ferrar Glacier Snout 77 41.7 163 31 236
PC10 Ferrar Glacier Snout 77 41.7 163 31 236
PC11 Stn 32 Ferrar Valley 77 41.3 163 42 230