With an average annual air temperature of -2.2 F and an average precipitation of 3 - 50 mm per year, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are dominated by dry soils underlain by permafrost.
«There are also big ponds that might dry out over large areas, as well as soilsunderlain by a network of ice wedges where warming could lead to a thermokarst, or a slumping, of the land surface as permafrost thaws and the ice wedges melt.