South Georgia and its offshore islands in the South Atlantic presented by the British Antarctic Survey on a double-sided map combining topographic mapping of the whole island at 1:200,000 scale and detailed topographic mapping of the route of Shackleton’s crossing in May 1916 at 1:40,000 scale. The map is available as either a folded map, or a flat wall map that will be delivered in a poster roll.
On one side is a map presenting the topography by contours at 100 m intervals with numerous trigonometric heights and spot heights. Colouring and graphics indicate ice-free terrain and moraine. Numerous glaciers, peaks, bays, etc, are named and the map shows locations of research stations and disused whaling stations.
On the reverse side is a map covering the route which Sir Ernest Shackleton took during the first-ever crossing of South Georgia from King Haakon Bay. This 1:40,000 scale map uses data created from very-high-resolution satellite imagery including contours at 50 m intervals and spot heights of the main peaks. This side also has 1:25,000 scale insets of key areas along the crossing, and a cross-section showing elevation along the route.
Exploratory notes provide historical background on South Georgia and full technical specifications including data sources and references.
Key updates in the third edition of the BAS South Georgia map are to the coastline, contours and rock/ice/moraine datasets. The coastline was updated in many regions where glaciers have retreated since the last edition in 2017. Contours have also been updated on glaciers and surrounding regions which had changed significantly in the last few years. New elevation data were created from high-resolution satellite imagery for the Ross and Hindle glaciers region as well as the Herz and Twitcher glaciers. These glaciers have retreated and dropped in elevation substantially. The land cover of rock/ice/moraine is always changing on South Georgia as glaciers retreat and ice melts, and this is another dataset that was updated in key regions to show changes. No changes were made to the Shackleton Crossing side of the map.