Everything about The Transantarctic Mountains totally explained
The
Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated
TAM) compose a
mountain range in
Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from
Cape Adare in northern
Victoria Land to
Coats Land. These mountains serve as the division between
East Antarctica and
West Antarctica. They include a number of separately named mountain groups, which are often again subdivided into smaller ranges.
Geography
The mountain range stretches between the
Ross Sea and the
Weddell Sea the entire length of Antarctica, thence the name. With a total length of about 3,500 km, the Transantarctic Mountains are one of the longer
mountain ranges on
Earth. The 100–300 km wide range forms the boundary between
East Antarctica and
West Antarctica. The
East Antarctic Ice Sheet bounds the TAM along their entire length on the
Eastern Hemisphere side, while the
Western Hemisphere side of the range is bounded by the
Ross Sea in Victoria Land from Cape Adare to
McMurdo Sound, the
Ross Ice Shelf from McMurdo Sound to near the
Scott Glacier, and the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet beyond.
The
summits and dry valleys of the TAM are some of the few places in Antarctica not covered by ice, the highest of which rise more than above sea level. The
Dry Valleys lie near McMurdo Sound and represent a special Antarctic phenomenon: landscapes that are snow and ice free due to the extremely limited precipitation and
ablation of ice in the valleys. The highest mountain is 4,528 m high
Mount Kirkpatrick in the
Queen Alexandra Range. Isolated peaks surrounded by ice are referred to as
nunataks.
Biology
Penguins,
seals, and sea birds live along the Ross Sea coastline in Victoria Land, while life in the interior of the Transantarctics is limited to
lichens,
algae, and
fungi.
History
The Transantarctic Mountains were first seen by Captain
James Ross in 1841 from the Ross Sea. The range is a natural barrier that must be crossed to reach the
South Pole from the
Ross Ice Shelf. In 1908, while not making the pole,
Ernest Shackleton's party was the first to cross the mountains, using the
Beardmore Glacier.
Robert Scott returned to the Beardmore in 1911, while
Roald Amundsen crossed the range via the
Axel Heiberg Glacier.
Much of the range remained unexplored until the late 1940's and 1950's, when missions such as
Operation Highjump and the
International Geophysical Year made extensive use of
aerial photography and concentrated on a thorough investigation of the entire continent. The name "Transantarctic Mountains" were recommended in 1962 by the
US-ACAN committee, a US authority for geographic names. This purely descriptive label (in contrast to many other
geographic names of the seventh continent) is internationally accepted at present.
The
Leverett Glacier in the
Queen Maud Mountains is the planned route through the TAM for the
overland supply road between
McMurdo Station and
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Geology
The Transantarctic Mountains are considerably older than other
mountain ranges of the continent that are mainly
volcanic in origin. The range was
uplifted during the opening of the
West Antarctic Rift to the east, beginning about 65 million years ago in the early
Cenozoic.
The mountains consist of sedimentary layers lying upon a
basement of
granites and
gneisses. The sedimentary layers include the
Beacon Supergroup sandstones,
siltstones, and
coal deposited beginning in the
Silurian period and continuing into the
Jurassic. In many places the Beacon has been intruded by
dikes and
sills of
Jurassic-age
Ferrar Dolerite. Many of the
fossils found in Antarctica are from locations within these sedimentary formations.
Ice from the
East Antarctic ice sheet flows through the Transantarctic Mountains via a series of
outlet glaciers into the Ross Sea, Ross Ice Shelf, and
West Antarctic Ice Sheet. These glaciers generally flow perpendicular to the orientation of the range and define subranges and peak groups. It is thought that many of these outlet glaciers follow the traces of large-scale geologic
faults.
Further Information
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