The GANOVEX programme of BGR
The Transantarctic Mountains and the adjacent West Antarctic Rift System form the morphological and geological boundary between East and West Antarctica. Victoria Land, at the Pacific end of the Transantarctic Mountains, has been the focus of BGR's land-based Antarctic research since its inception in 1979 and is the target of the GANOVEX research programme.
BGR's own summer station, Gondwana, is also located at Gerlache Inlet in Terra Nova Bay, close to the Italian Mario Zucchelli Station and the South Korean Jang Bogo Station. China's Quinling Station is about 25 kilometres away on Inexpressible Island, and New Zealand's Scott Base and the US's McMurdo Station are about 350 kilometres to the southwest. In the Everett Range, in the middle of northern Victoria Land, is BGR's Lillie Marleen Hut, which was built in January 1980 during the first GANOVEX expedition and has been protected as a historic site under the Antarctic Treaty since 2005.
Today's Transantarctic High Mountains were formed as a result of the stretching of the Earth's crust along the West Antarctic Rift System during the Earth's recent history. However, the rocks that make up the mountains look back to a much older geological past. They bear witness to the history of the supercontinent Gondwana, in the centre of which Antarctica once lay, surrounded by the present-day continents of the southern hemisphere and the Indian subcontinent. However, Antarctica was already a central part of supercontinents before Gondwana, namely Rodinia and the older Columbia, whose constellations and the role of Antarctica within these are still being debated.
With the expeditions of the GANOVEX programme, the BGR is investigating the geodynamic processes that formed the rocks of the Transantarctic Mountains in space and time. This includes the formation, existence and disintegration of Gondwana and its precursors, the structure and development of the Antarctic crust in the context of the formation and uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains and the opening of the West Antarctic Rift System, as well as the climate, environmental and landscape development in the past. The BGR pursues a multi-methodological geological-geophysical approach that combines field work, airborne and marine geophysical investigations.
Current and planned expeditions
BGR is planning to carry out the 16th expedition of the GANOVEX programme (GANOVEX XVI) to northern Victoria Land between October 2025 and January 2026. The main logistical base will be the Gondwana Station, and two field camps are planned. Cooperation partners include the Italian Antarctic Programme (PNRA), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Canadian Geological Survey (GSC Calgary) and the Universities of Cologne and Münster. The scientific issues cover the disciplines of structural geology, sedimentology, geochronology, geochemistry, petrology, astrobiology, atmospheric sciences and geophysics. Individual projects include: (a) Subglacial geology of the hinterland of the Transantarctic Mountains in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin using indirect tectonics and provenance analysis from moraine material, flanking the AWI-BGR project GEA VIII / AIR-WILKES; (b) development and geodynamic processes of the NVL in the course of the Ross orogeny, e.g. processes during the formation of the Bowers volcanic arc; (c) high-resolution aeromagnetic surveys and gravimetric measurements in the central area of the Lanterman-Mariner Fault Zone (LMFZ); (d) lake sedimentology and seawater analysis; (e) astrobological and geomicrobiological research, as well as atmospheric science and technology; (f) investigation of the PT boundary in the Beacon Supergroup.
Previous expeditions
The BGR's geoscientific research programme GANOVEX has been carried out since 1979. The first expeditions (GANOVEX I to III) concentrated on basic geological work and mapping in northern Victoria Land. The final product was the first coherent geological map of northern Victoria Land. The follow-up expeditions (GANOVEX IV to VI) laid the foundation for the combined geological and geophysical approach of the BGR expeditions, in order to better understand processes and crustal structure.
From 1992 onwards, GANOVEX VII and VIII extended the operational area from Victoria Land to Marie Byrd Land and the region from Oates Land to George V Land. One of the central questions was the location of the boundary between the Ross orogen and the cratons of East Antarctica. First thermochronological and tectonic studies on the uplift and denudation history also began. As part of GANOVEX, the BGR initiated the GITARA surveys (German-Italian Aeromagnetic Research in Antarctica) in 1990-91 together with the Italian Antarctic programme. GANOVEX IX (2005-06) comprised a geological-geophysical research programme focusing on the Beacon and Ferrar supergroups, the structural and uplift history of the Transantarctic Mountains, and an extensive aerogeophysical survey of the marine area north of the Pennell Coast up to the Adare Trough. The results were new models for Mesozoic sedimentology, stratigraphy and basin development, for the uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains and an improved understanding of the crust off northern Victoria Land and the ocean-continent boundary.
With GANOVEX X (2009-10), BGR began a new phase of its aerogeophysical surveys, moving away from earlier large-scale surveys towards smaller-scale high-resolution surveys with closer flight line spacing and better detail. The expeditions GANOVEX XI to XIII (2016-2020) expanded the focus on the refinement and validation of the newly developed modelling concepts and on new questions regarding the development of the basement and overburden.
With GANOVEX XIV-BOOST (2021-22), the BGR, in cooperation with the Italian Antarctic Programme, applied an ‘amphibious’ approach to solving open scientific questions. The BOOST project involved three seasons of coordinated land-, air- and sea-based geological-geophysical investigations using BGR geology/aerogeophysics and Italian marine geophysics. The expeditions provided new data on bathymetry and crustal structure in the offshore area and on the correlation of marine and similarly orientated structures on land.
The GANOVEX - Expeditions
Further information on past expeditions can be found under the following links (available in German only):
GANOVEX XII
GANOVEX XIII
GANOVEX XIII/2
GANOVEX XIV
GANOVEX XV
Partner
During the long history of the GANOVEX research programme, BGR has established and maintained a wide range of contacts with partners in Germany and abroad. Some of these contacts have developed into long-term and fruitful collaborations. The collaborations of the GANOVEX programme since its inception are listed below:
Research institutions and programmes:
Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA, Italienisches nationales Antarktis-Programm), Korean Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtzzentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, National Science Foundation (USA), Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (IGNS) New Zealand, Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG), DWD Seewetteramt Hamburg, GeoforschungsZentrum Potsdan (GFZ), Landesamt für Bergbau, Energie und Geologie (LBEG), Leibnitz-Institut für Angewandte Geophysik (LIAG), Geological Survey of Tasmania (Australien), Bureau of Mineral Resources (Australien), Nationales Institut für Geophysik und Ozeanographie (OGS, Triest), Nationales Institut für Geophysik und Vulkanologie (INGV, Rom), ENEA, Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l‘Energia e l´Ambiente, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Norsk Polarinstitutt, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (USA), USGS (USA),
Universities:
Bremen, Genua, Münster, Hannover, Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt/M., Erlangen-Nürnberg, Freiburg, Göttingen, Tübingen, Bergen, Dresden, Aachen, Hamburg, Jena, Kiel, Köln, Mainz, München, Potsdam, Würzburg, Rom III, Adelaide, Melbourne, Maquarie Univ. Sydney, Univ. Tasmania Hobart, Bologna, Napoli, Pisa, Ravenna, Siena, Torino, Canterbury University Christchurch, Victoria University Wellington, The Ohio State University, Univ. California Santa Barbara