The Transantarctic Mountains Deformation (TAMDEF) project has been in existence for the past ten years, with the aim of using GPS to measure bedrock crustal motions in the Transantartic Mountains of Antarctica (figure 1). The goal of this project is to document neotectonic displacements due to tectonic deformation within the West Antarctic rift (Terror Rift) and/or to mass change of the Antarctic ice sheets. Horizontal displacements related to active neotectonic rifting, strike-slip translations, and volcanism are tightly constrained by monitoring the combined TAMDEF and Italian VLNDEF networks of bedrock GPS stations along the Transantarctic Mountains and on offshore islands in the Ross Sea.

Figure 1. Map of Antarctica showing location the TAMDEF network (red box) in relation to the Transantarctic Mountains, West Antarctic Rift (Terror Rift), and the Ross Sea.