Ross Embayment

[2] The name is most commonly used in the scientific literature,[3][4][5] at times along with the West Antarctic Rift System, which is of larger extent and has geologic meaning.

The embayment extends from Northern Victoria Land and the Transantarctic Mountains on the west (in East Antarctica) to the Edward VII Peninsula, Shirase Coast, and Siple Coast on the east (Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica), and south to the grounding line of the Ross Ice Shelf.

[7] Before that time and earlier East and West Antarctica had similar elevations and the Ross Embayment did not exist.

[7][8][9] The breakup of the eastern sector of Gondwana in Cretaceous time resulted in crustal extension, thinning and subsidence to form the Ross Embayment.

[12] Half of this occurred prior to sea floor spreading that separated the New Zealand microcontinents (Zealandia) from Antarctica beginning at 85 million years.

Map of Antarctica showing outline of Ross Embayment
A view of the Ross Ice Shelf and Ross Sea in Antarctica from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ). North at top. A giant iceberg on the left (west) has broken off the front of the Ross Ice Shelf. The Transantarctic Mountains cross the image from left to lower right. Original file from Commons was image-enhanced.