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Aims
During the 1989-90 season, work concentrated on four projects looking at various aspects of climatically controlled processes operating in the Miers Valley. These projects were:
| 1. | Continuation of the monitoring of stream flow and various climatic parameters which may be controlling its timing and volume. |
| 2. | Monitoring, and attempting to quantify, the fluvial sediment transport processes. |
| 3. | An attempt to quantify the albedo of the various surficial materials (including glacier and lake ice, and water) and to relate this to the distinctive "patterned" ground found throughout the valley. |
| 4. | Measurement of changes in the Miers and Adams glaciers and testing the practicality of using "terrestrial" photogrammetric techniques to monitor changes in the terminal faces of the glaciers. |
It is hoped that the data collected during the past two field seasons will permit:
| 1. | The evaluation of the seasonal variability of glacier behaviour and surface water hydrology. |
| 2. | An improved understanding of the energy and mass balances of the glacier-river-lake system in the Miers Valley, which typifies such systems in the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. |
| 3. | The development of a water balance for the Miers Valley hydrologic system. |
| 4. | The quantification of sediment sources, the relative importance of sediment transporting media, and how these vary both spatially and temporally. |
| 5. | Quantification of the albedo (reflective) properties of the various surficial materials found throughout the valley. |
Although some of these areas of study have been attempted in other areas of Antarctica (e.g., the Wright Valley) these studies have tended to be inconclusive because of the intensity of sampling and the complexity of the systems investigated. In the present study these problems were overcome with the use of electronic data logging and by studying the Miers Valley which has fewer inputs than previous study areas.
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