Морской атлас

Salistev regards the 1950 navigatorisch-geographischer first volume of the Морской атлас as a notable achievement and a fundamental cartographic contribution to the geography of the oceans and seas. Its general geographical maps are especially relevant to navigation, and he identifies the equally detailed treatment of sea and land, hypsometric depiction of relief, and consistent design as its defining features.

The article describes Volume I, published in 1950, as an 83-sheet presentation of the oceans’ navigational geography and basic maritime knowledge. Its overview maps are at 1:30,000,000, general charts at 1:3,000,000–1:5,000,000, and regional charts at 1:250,000–1:2,000,000. The reviewer identifies its chief distinction as the equally detailed depiction of sea and land, using colored contours and depth contours to represent relief across the entire globe.

This article reviews the second, physico-geographical volume of the Marine Atlas, published in 1953, and summarizes its discussion by the Presidium of the Geographical Society of the USSR. Comprising 76 sheets, 138 principal maps, 228 inset maps, and 239 diagrams, the volume sought to provide a systematic and integrated cartographic account of the physical geography of the World Ocean. The review examines its four major components: the history of maritime voyages and expeditions; oceanography; the climate of the oceans; and materials on terrestrial magnetism, cartographic projections, and practical astronomy. The oceanographic maps cover seafloor relief and geology, water temperature, salinity and density, currents, waves, tides, polar ice, and marine organisms. The climatic section uses maps of heat balance, air and water temperature anomalies, air masses, and cyclone and anticyclone tracks to demonstrate interactions among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and continents. According to the article, the atlas surpasses earlier specialized or regional collections by presenting the entire World Ocean within a unified scientific framework and by combining research, teaching, navigational, and reference functions. Its principal strengths include extensive use of primary sources, detailed representation of Russian and Soviet exploration, coordinated work among numerous scientific and cartographic institutions, rigorous collective review, and sophisticated multicolor printing. The author nevertheless recommends supplementing the atlas with a concise reference handbook explaining classifications, terminology, and quantitative ranges of the phenomena mapped. Overall, the volume is judged to be a major contribution to Soviet and international geography and cartography, reflecting the highest contemporary level of knowledge about the oceans; accordingly, the Society’s Presidium resolved to nominate it for the Stalin Prize.

Salistev regards the 1953 physical-geographical second volume of the Marine Atlas as its most interesting part and as a major cartographic contribution to the geography of oceans and seas. Its four sections cover exploration and expeditions, oceanography, climate, and geomagnetism, cartography, and astronomy, but their contents extend well beyond those headings to include seabed and continental geomorphology, earthquakes and volcanoes, coastal types, and marine life. He particularly praises the volume’s novel thematic maps and its methodological treatment of the Earth as an integrated physical system linking the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. By pairing maps of processes with maps of their causal factors and emphasizing interactions among natural phenomena, the volume represented, in his assessment, a major advance over the 1937 Great Soviet World Atlas.

The article describes the 1953 second volume as devoted to the physical geography of the oceans, with sections on navigational hazards, oceanography—including marine hydrology, basin structure, and marine life—climatology, and geomagnetism. Most maps range from 1:5,000,000 to 1:80,000,000, especially 1:35,000,000 to 1:80,000,000. The reviewer praises its depiction of marine natural conditions and ocean types, singles out the large-scale harbor plans as particularly refined, and commends the atlas for combining broad visual overview with clear thematic differentiation and high-quality color presentation.