Edward C. Thiel (May 4, 1928 – November 9, 1961), was a geologist from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and chief seismologist at

Ellsworth Station Ellsworth Scientific Station ( es, Estación Científica Ellsworth, or simply ''Estación Ellsworth'' or ''Base Ellsworth'') was a permanent, all year-round originally American, then Argentine Antarctic scientific research station named after Amer ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, from 1956 to 1958. He was leader of the traverse party that discovered the Thiel Trough submarine valley that was later named in his honor. The

Thiel Mountains The Thiel Mountains are an isolated, mainly snow-capped mountain range of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Ellsworth Land region of Antarctica. The mountain range is long, and is located roughly between the Horlick Mountai ...

were also named after him. Thiel was killed on November 9, 1961 while returning from a geomagnetic survey mission to

Mirny Station The Mirny Station (russian: Мирный, literally ''Peaceful'') is a Russian (formerly Soviet) first Antarctic science station located in Queen Mary Land, Antarctica, on the Antarctic coast of the Davis Sea. The station is managed by the ...

. The P2V-7 (Bu No.140439) Neptune aircraft from US Navy Squadron

VX-6 Air Development Squadron Six (VX-6 or AIRDEVRON SIX, commonly referred to by its nickname, "puckered penguins") was a United States Navy Air Development Squadron based at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Established at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, ...

in which he was a passenger crashed at

Wilkes Station Wilkes Station was an Antarctic research station established 29 January 1957 by the United States as one of seven U.S. stations established for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) program in Antarctica. It was taken over by Australia o ...

in Antarctica, where it had refueled overnight, and was en route back to

McMurdo Station McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the Unit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiel, Edward C. 1928 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American geologists University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Seismologists