Maps (M), plans and stratigraphic sections

This series includes annotated maps of Svalbard (with details of localities visited and specimens collected), printed maps and those published by expedition members in later journals, as well as plans of equipment such as the boats (Salterella, Collenia).

The stratigraphic sections in this series depict the age, formation, thickness, sample number and lithology of a section. They include exact details of the locality, the scale, the date, and who they were measured and plotted by. Some also contain a topographic map. Many of these were published, but some were not.

"..a collection of several hundred original maps, topographical, geological, structural, have been drawn, and a large number of stratigraphical sections, both horizontal and vertical have been constructed" [Report NCSE R34.4].

Up until 1961 expeditions were organized on an ad-hoc basis, but after 1960 the opportunity for exploring wider areas came with grants from Government Research funds and oil industry. It was about that time (1962) that 7 full-time research students meant that the need for coordination of map sheets became insistent. According to Harland "it has been policy for all involved to use what was available and also to contribute their own drawing time to improving topographical stock" [Report NCSE R34.4].

The compilation of maps and texts from various surveys was largely the principal work of the geologists of the Norsk Polarinstitutt (NP). There was international agreement to cooperate with NP on the geological mapping of Svalbard.