The Transantarctic Mountains are a mountain range in Antarctica, extending with some interruptions from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. Composed primarily of uplifted sedimentary rock, they divide the continent into East and West Antarctica.
The range encompasses numerous separately named mountain groups, themselves often subdivided into smaller ranges. British sailors aboard the Ross expedition first sighted these mountains in 1841 at what would later be called the Ross Ice Shelf, named for expedition commander James Clark Ross. The first crossing came during the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904. Stretching across the continent, the Transantarctic Mountains form one of the longest mountain ranges on Earth and represent a fundamental geological boundary, separating the ancient craton of East Antarctica from the younger, lower-lying West Antarctic Rift System.
