This book presents a summary of the geology of the Transantarctic Mountains for Earth scientists who may want to work there or who need an overview of the geologic history of this region. In addition, the properties of the East Antarctic ice sheet and of the meteorites that accumulate on its surface are treated in separate chapters. The presentation ends with the Cenozoic glaciation of the Transantarctic Mountains including the limnology and geochemical evolution of the saline lakes in the ice-free valleys. • The subject matter in this book is presented in chronological order starting about 750 million years ago and continuing to the present time. • The chapters can be read selectively because the introduction to each chapter identifies the context that gives relevance to the subject matter to be discussed. • The text is richly illustrated with 330 original line drawings as well as with 182 color maps and photographs. • The book contains indexes of both subject matter and of authors’ names that allow it to be used as an encyclopedia of the Transantarctic Mountains and of the East Antarctic ice sheet. • Most of the chapters are supplemented by Appendices containing data tables, additional explanations of certain phenomena (e.g., the formation and seasonal destruction of stratospheric ozone), and illustrative calculations (e.g., 38Cl dates of meteorites). • The authors have spent a combined total of fourteen field seasons between 1964 and 1995 doing geological research in the Transantarctic Mountains with logistical support by the US Antarctic Program. • Although Antarctica is remote and inaccessible, tens of thousands of scientists of many nationalities and their assistants have worked there and even larger numbers of investigators will work there in the future.

Sixty articles arranged in eight thematic sections refer to most recent geological and geophysical results of Antarctic research. The Precambrian of the East Antarctic shield and its geological history is considered as well as sub-ice topography, geophysics and stratigraphy, sedimentology and geophysics of the surrounding Southern Ocean. Particular emphasis is given to the connection of the Antarctic and the surrounding continents when forming part of Gondwana.

This memoir is the first to review all of Antarctica’s volcanism between 200 million years ago and the Present. The region is still volcanically active. The volume is an amalgamation of in-depth syntheses, which are presented within distinctly different tectonic settings. Each is described in terms of (1) the volcanology and eruptive palaeoenvironments; (2) petrology and origin of magma; and (3) active volcanism, including tephrochronology. Important volcanic episodes include: astonishingly voluminous mafic and felsic volcanic deposits associated with the Jurassic break-up of Gondwana; the construction and progressive demise of a major Jurassic to Present continental arc, including back-arc alkaline basalts and volcanism in a young ensialic marginal basin; Miocene to Pleistocene mafic volcanism associated with post-subduction slab-window formation; numerous Neogene alkaline volcanoes, including the massive Erebus volcano and its persistent phonolitic lava lake, that are widely distributed within and adjacent to one of the world’s major zones of lithospheric extension (the West Antarctic Rift System); and very young ultrapotassic volcanism erupted subglacially and forming a world-wide type example (Gaussberg).

Accompanied by map in back inside cover pocket entitled: Geology of the Northern Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, 1st ed., 2001.