Collecting Endoliths at Battleship Promontory

On Monday 4 December 2000, helicopter HNO from Allan Hills unloaded Alex Pyne, Warren Dickinson, Wayne Pollard and Glen Kingan at approximately 10:15 am with emergency camp gear. Stratus cloud was at about 4/8, wind <3 knots and variable, and temperature was about −6°C. The helo returned from Marble point for pickup at about 12:45. During this time, cloud cover increased to about 7/8 but winds had remained about the same.

Endoliths with bright green colour were patchy in their habitat and more difficult to find than anticipated. Unfortunately, only 2 hours had been allotted for sampling, and due to sample variability, probably 3-4 hours were needed to collect the required amount.

Endoliths were found both in fractures and as a consistent layer about 5 mm below the surface in the more porous and weathered sandstone of the Beacon Heights Orthoquartzite. However, during the collection time an understanding of the most favourable growing conditions of the endoliths was not determined. To sample as efficiently as possible in the restricted time frame, tasks were divided as follows:

Warren Dickinson searched for endoliths with a geo pick and recorded notes on the collection. He also too 35mm pictures and digital video of the operations. Wayne Pollard, using a geo pick, searched the wider area for endoliths. Glen Kingan also searched for samples and used the kanga hammer for splitting large samples which were brought to Alex Pyne for processing. Alex Pyne, with two layers of latex gloves on, sized the samples with a small chisel, and bagged and labelled them.

The endolith samples were taken from two areas about 30 m apart and from numerous sites of boulders or slabs the size of which are listed in the following table.

Endolith Samples Collected

Area #1 (photos 4-7, 4-8, 4-9) about 150 m from helo landing
Site #	Rock Size (mm)	Comments
1	---	surface outcrop
2	200x100x100	Endoliths in small fractures
3	200x150x100	North facing boulder w/smooth face
Area #2 (photos 4-10, 4-11) about 30m SE of area 1
4	250x250x100	weathered & friable
5	---	weathered & friable
6	---	weathered & friable
7	---	highly weathered and pock-marked
8	1000x500x500	hard but few fractures
9	1000x500x200	crumbly and fractured
10	500x400x300	hard red horizon, surface is platypage break
11	---	surface crust over hard ss
12	1000x750x100	slab is very rich in endoliths
13	---	helo approaching