Review of Antarctic geomorphological mapping

For the first time, all the existing geomorphological maps of Antarctica published as independent documents have been compiled and analysed comparatively. The maps have been grouped into two categories: (1) geomorphological maps in the strict sense (s.s.) from which one can obtain information about the dimension, geometry, origin and in some cases, the age of the landforms and mapped deposits; (2) thematic geomorphological maps which represent a limited number of geomorphological elements and morphogenetic environments. The geomorphological maps s.s. have been classified into four types according to different graphic representation, and also for the importance assigned to the genesis of landforms, to morphography and lithology: Morphostructural maps, that show the main morphostructures; Morphochronological maps which do not adopt the genetic classification of the landforms, but use different colors to discern the chronological distinction of the deposits; Geomorphological-morphographic maps, that indicate the morphography and genetic representation of landforms by areas of geomorphological processes; Morphogenetic-morphodinamic maps with chronological elements, that pay particular attention to morpho-genesis and to the lithological nature of the bedrock. In total, 10 geomorphological maps s.s. and 6 geomorphological thematic maps have been analysed. Of the 16 maps considered, 11 correspond to the East Antarctica, 2 to the West Antarctica, 2 to the subantarctic islands and 1 dealing the mostly part of the continent. It is confirmed that the majority of the geomorphological maps s.s. relate to partially deglaciated coastal areas, only 2 correspond to continental zones, that exist 17 686 km2 mapped to medium or relatively detailed scale (from 1:20 000 to 1:250 000). These figures provide an idea of the small proportion of the Antarctic territory for which geomorphological maps already exist, in spite of the numerous studies that have already been done since the first scientific expeditions