The seventh German Antarctic North Victoria Land Expedition (GANOVEX VII) took place in the austral summer of 1992/93. Geological and geophysical investigations were carried out on both sides of the Ross Sea: on King Edward VII Peninsula, northwestern Marie Byrd Land, in the east, and in northern Victoria Land and the adjacent Oates Coast in the west. Apatite fission-track data from the Alexandra and Rockefeller Mountains on Edward VII Peninsula indicate that the thermal history of the eastern rift flank of northern Victoria Land was different from that of the western rift shoulder. Tectonic and isostatic control factors on the landscape evolution of the coastal mountains of northern Victoria Land and their relationship to the Ross Sea rift are discussed in one paper of this volume. Regional metamorphic rocks appear on both sides of the Ross Sea. They were affected by the Ross orogeny and are related to the formation of the Gondwana supercontinent. The type and degree of metamorphism of the Early Palaeozoic regional metamorphic rocks of the Swanson Formation in westernmost Marie Byrd Land were studied and compared with metamorphic rocks in northern Victoria Land and on South Island, New Zealand. A paper deals with the origin of the amphibolites in the Priestley Formation of the Wilson Terrane of northern Victoria Land. The composition of the volcanic parent rocks of the Bowers Terrane metamorphic rocks in northern Victoria Land and their plate tectonic setting are discussed in another paper. The gravity measurements of previous GANOVEX expeditions were continued in Victoria Land between Brimstone Peak and Coulman Island, south of Lillie Marleen Hut, and in the Oates Coast region. Two-dimensional models are used to interpret the data obtained along two profiles from the polar plateau to the coast.