Map of the terminal moraine of the Werenskioldbreen glacier (South-West Spitsbergen) from 2015

Abstract

The first direct field measurement of the entire terminal moraine of the Werenskioldbreen glacier on Spitsbergen took place at the end of July and the beginning of August 2015. The results of the measurements were the basis for the development of the large-scale terminal moraine map. The article presents the stages of map creation and editing based on measurement points established by the GNSS method. The map editing required knowledge of the morphologically complex terrain. Key documentation was field notes and documentary photographs, enabling the cartographic interpretation of the varied topographic features of the terrain's surface. Based on the documentation, the water bodies on the moraine were located, the outline of the structure and the boundary points were executed and the latter were excluded from the triangulation process. The glacial river was also excluded from triangulation, which allowed a DTM to be developed. An important step in point cloud mapping was to generate a topologically correct digital elevation model of satisfactory accuracy. On the basis of the DTM, contour lines were generated showing the topographic features of the terrain's surface. The printable resultant map's scale is 1: 5000; it is in the UTM coordinate system, in the 33X zone. Complementing the content of the map, a grid of geographic coordinates, a kilometer grid, and map key descriptions were added.