Antarctic Map Folio Series

Summary

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.