Charles B. Hitchcock · 1966
American Geographical Society director Charles B. Hitchcock recounts the planning and early production of the Antarctic Map Folio Series, supported financially and advised by the National Science Foundation. An atlas proposal made in 1958 led to questionnaires circulated in 1959–1960, which received 178 responses. Intended for scientists and students seriously interested in Antarctica, the project adopted separately issued, single-subject folios so that completed material could be published without waiting for a bound atlas. The Society received the production contract in November 1962 and appointed Vivian Bushnell executive editor. Hitchcock describes her use of a classified file of some 3,000 scientific reports from 1957–1963, research-program lists, and consultations with scientists to plan the contents. Specialist advisers and international contributors assisted with individual subjects. Coverage and presentation varied with the evidence: flowering-plant maps would show every known locality, while lichen maps would illustrate selected distribution patterns; sparse marine-invertebrate records required contributors to assess what could meaningfully be mapped. At the time of writing, the aeronomy, ice-sheet characteristics, and maps-and-surveys folios had appeared. Hitchcock outlined a series covering 17 subjects, sometimes with two folios per subject, and reported further cartographic work in progress. Publication order initially depended on when authors completed their material.
Vivian C. Bushnell · 1970
Vivian C. Bushnell reports on published and planned folios in the American Geographical Society’s Antarctic Map Folio Series. Folios 12 and 13 appeared in August. Geologic Maps of Antarctica, prepared since 1965 with contributions from 25 geologists in eight countries, contains 17 regional plates, mostly at 1:1,000,000, five continent-wide plates, and a Gondwanaland map. Bushnell argues that geological similarities between Antarctica and other southern landmasses support the Gondwanaland hypothesis. Folio 13 combines A. L. Gordon and R. D. Goldberg’s 18 plates on circumpolar waters—standard-level temperature, salinity and oxygen distributions, a station map, and meridional profiles—with K. Hunkins’s plate showing seasonal sound-channel velocities and variations in channel depth. Bird and fish folios are scheduled for the next few months. The bird maps, compiled under George Watson’s supervision, show breeding sites and specimen and sighting records; a bibliography will document breeding localities and northernmost records, and some southernmost records, while Watson will supply explanatory text. Hugh DeWitt’s fish maps locate coastal and deep-water occurrences, with other researchers’ data still to be added. Further folios in preparation cover bathymetry and subglacial topography, marine sediments and fossil foraminiferal localities, exploration and scientific investigation, and Antarctic mammals.
Vivian C. Bushnell · 1971
Vivian C. Bushnell reports on the American Geographical Society’s Antarctic Map Folio Series, planned as about 20 subject-specific folios summarizing current Antarctic knowledge. Thirteen are in print; three are scheduled for late 1971 and a fourth for early 1972. Folio 14, Birds of the Antarctic and Subantarctic, supervised by George E. Watson, maps observation or collection localities and known breeding sites for 50 bird species on 14 plates, supplemented by photographs, distribution commentary, and a bibliography. Hugh H. DeWitt’s Folio 15, Coastal and Deep-Water Benthic Fishes of the Antarctic, has 31 maps on five plates recording collection localities for 119 species, with representative drawings and text on the fauna and maps. Folio 16, by Bruce Heezen, Marie Tharp, and Charles Bentley, presents seven plates on solid-earth morphology, including bathymetry, subglacial bedrock topography, sounding tracks, bottom profiles, and physiographic provinces; earthquake epicenters help delineate major seafloor ridges. Folio 17, called Marine Sediments of the Antarctic and Subantarctic in the article, combines contributions on sediment type and color, ferromanganese deposits, seafloor photographs, and fossil foraminiferal and diatom distributions. Its Pleistocene sediment-thickness maps use radiolarian studies, while a Lamont-Doherty group maps total sediment thickness from seismic reflection data for the region westward from 60°W to 105°E. Folios on exploration and scientific investigation history and on Antarctic mammals are also in preparation.
