Forms of Unusual Patterned Ground: Examples from the Falkland Islands, South Atlantic

Abstract

Three forms of unusual patterned ground are described from the Falkland Islands, South Atlantic. 1. Stone polygons have developed on residual peat following clast transport from adjacent exposures of angular rock debris, desiccation of the peat surface and reworking of clasts into the network of open cracks.2. In areas of abundant sand supply, sand polygons are present on lake-bed and lake-margin peat surfaces that have experienced desiccation. Sections through these polygons reveal sand-filled cracks reaching 25 cm in depth.3. The movement of sheep and cattle across erosion scars has created numerous hoof-print depressions which have become filled with small stones and now form roughly circular to irregular stone-filled hoof prints.These features do not result from frost-related processes and appear not to have been recorded in other regions. The exact mechanisms by which clasts and sand have been transported are not known with certainty although aeolian action, sheetflow, and wind-generated wave...