A comprehensive 1:250,000 scale geological map of the Convoy Range and Franklin Island quadrangles (Victoria Land, Antarctica)

A comprehensive geological map of the Convoy Range - Franklin Island USGS quadrangles (Victoria Land, Antarctica) integrates previous geological maps with new field data collected during the 2017/18 and 2018/19 austral summers by the XXXIII and XXXIV ItaliAntartide expeditions. This new geological map allows a complete coverage of Victoria Land, by filling the gap between the GIGAMAP program (a German / Italian agreement of cooperation to produce new geological maps of Victoria Land), to the north, and the maps by the New Zealand Antarctic program, to the south. The Lower Paleozoic basement is overlain by flat-lying Devonian to Lower Jurassic cover of sedimentary and igneous rocks. The mapping highlighted some key features of this region, such as the scarce occurrence of rocks of the Wilson Metamorphic Complex, the occurrence of mafic rocks belonging to the Granite Harbour Intrusive Complex and the possible activity of faulting with hundreds of m of vertical offset, linked to the post Ross Orogeny tectonics. This new map can be used as the starting point for any future geological investigation in this region.