Transantarctic Mountains

Map of the Transantarctic Mountains
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Aerial view of the Dugdale Glacier in 1957
Mount Herschel (3,335 m) in the Admiralty Mountains subrange, as seen from Cape Hallett
David Glacier with the Drygalski Ice Tongue in the far distance
Byrd Glacier from Landsat
The Thiel Mountains

The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land.

- Transantarctic Mountains
Map of the Transantarctic Mountains

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Almost blank map of West Antarctica

West Antarctica

Part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula.

Part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula.

Almost blank map of West Antarctica
Labeled map of Antarctica, with West Antarctica on the left.
Geographical map of Antarctica

It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The expedition ship RRS Discovery in the Antarctic alongside the Great Ice Barrier, now known as the Ross Ice Shelf

Discovery Expedition

The first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier .

The first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier .

The expedition ship RRS Discovery in the Antarctic alongside the Great Ice Barrier, now known as the Ross Ice Shelf
Sir James Clark Ross, discoverer of the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Shelf and McMurdo Sound
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, appointed leader of the Discovery Expedition
Ernest Shackleton, Third Officer on the Discovery
Royal Doulton bone china plate from the expedition, marked ""DISCOVERY" ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1901" around a penguin. Brought back by C Reginald Ford.
The ship's bell of S.S. Discovery
General view of the huts
Shackleton, Scott and Wilson on 3 February 1903, on their return from the attempt to reach the South Pole
A modern photograph of the Discovery's old anchorage in Winter Quarters Bay, McMurdo Sound, alongside the Hut Point hut in the right background
Emperor penguins. The colony at Cape Crozier had been discovered by a party led by Charles Royds, in October 1902.
Drawing of two emperor penguins with chicks by Wilson (Sept. 1903)
The Dry Valleys in the western mountains of Victoria Land, discovered during the expedition's western journey.
The Vince memorial cross, erected on the Hut Point promontory

Further achievements included the discoveries of the Cape Crozier emperor penguin colony, King Edward VII Land, and the Polar Plateau (via the western mountains route) on which the South Pole is located.

Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain

Queen Maud Mountains

Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain

The Queen Maud Mountains are a major group of mountains, ranges and subordinate features of the Transantarctic Mountains, lying between the Beardmore and Reedy Glaciers and including the area from the head of the Ross Ice Shelf to the Antarctic Plateau in Antarctica.

Beardmore Glacier

The Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica is one of the largest valley glaciers in the world, being 125 mi long and having a width of 25 mi. It descends about 7,200 ft from the Antarctic Plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf and is bordered by the Commonwealth Range of the Queen Maud Mountains on the eastern side and the Queen Alexandra Range of the Central Transantarctic Mountains on the western.

Antarctica

Earth's southernmost continent.

Earth's southernmost continent.

Antarctica, a composite satellite image
A speculative representation of Antarctica labelled as 'Terra Australis Incognito' on Jan Janssonius's Zeekaart van het Zuidpoolgebied (1657), Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Eastern Antarctica is to the right of the Transantarctic Mountains and Western Antarctica is to the left.
Vinson Massif from the northwest, the highest peak in Antarctica
Glossopteris sp. leaf from the Permian of Antarctica
The Antarctic Plate
Pine Island Glacier, photographed in November 2011
Ice mass loss since 2002
Image of the largest hole in the ozone layer recorded, in September 2006
Emperor penguins with juveniles
Orange lichen (Caloplaca) growing on the Yalour Islands, Wilhelm Archipelago
Refuse littering the shoreline at Bellingshausen Station on King George Island, photographed in 1992
A whale in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
Adélie Land, depicted by Jules Dumont d'Urville in his Voyage au Pôle Sud (1846)
The Nimrod Expedition of 1907–1909 (left to right): Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams
The "ceremonial" South Pole, at Amundsen–Scott Station
The U.S. delegate Herman Phleger signs the Antarctic Treaty in December 1959.
The cruise ship Silver Cloud in Wilhelmina Bay
An aerial view of McMurdo Station, the largest research station in Antarctica
An Antarctic meteorite, Allan Hills 84001 on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Antarctica is divided into West Antarctica and East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains, which stretch from Victoria Land to the Ross Sea.

Map of Antarctica with Eastern Antarctica seen to the right.

East Antarctica

Map of Antarctica with Eastern Antarctica seen to the right.
Image of a variety of ice types off the coast of East Antarctica.
Geographical map of Antarctica

East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains.

Area map of Victoria land.

Victoria Land

Region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau.

Region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau.

Area map of Victoria land.

The region includes ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains and the McMurdo Dry Valleys (the highest point being Mount Abbott in the Northern Foothills), and the flatlands known as the Labyrinth.

The Himalayas, the highest mountain range on Earth, seen from space

Pensacola Mountains

The Himalayas, the highest mountain range on Earth, seen from space

The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of mountain ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Queen Elizabeth Land region of Antarctica.

McMurdo Station

United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

Nuclear reactor commemorative plaque
The supply ship MV American Tern during cargo operations at McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze 2007. The square building in the foreground is Discovery Hut.
McMurdo Station from above.
McMurdo Station in November 2003.
A 10K-AT "All Terrain" forklift moves a loaded cargo-sled as part of an Operation Deep Freeze resupply mission
Ivan the Terra Bus.
This 1983 image of USNS Southern Cross at McMurdo Station shows cargo operations on a floating ice pier. Such piers have been in use since 1973.
being led by the Russian icebreaker to McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze 2006. Mount Erebus is visible in the background.
Byrd Historic Monument
Annotated view over the Station, also showing Scott Base and the McMurdo Ice Shelf

The place is protected from cold waves from the interior of Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains, so temperatures below −40° are rare, compared to more exposed places like Neumayer Station, which usually gets those temperatures a few times every year, often as early as May, and sometimes even as early as April, and very rarely above 0 °C.

Map of the McMurdo Sound and the Dry Valleys

McMurdo Dry Valleys

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound.

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound.

Map of the McMurdo Sound and the Dry Valleys
Location of valleys (indicated by red dot) within the Ross Dependency
Map showing the delineation of the McMurdo Valleys Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA-2)
McMurdo Dry Valleys, Landsat 7 imagery acquired on December 18, 1999.
ASTER image of the Dry Valleys.
Mummified seal carcass
Field camp of scientists during the Antarctic summer,

The Taylor and Wright Valleys are major ice-free valleys within the Transantarctic Mountains.