Thiel Trough

The Thiel Trough () is a submarine trough trending NE-SW with depths reaching to 1,500 metres below sea level. The trough extends southwest from about 7630S, 3500W, in the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha ...

; underlies

Filchner Ice Shelf Wilhelm Filchner (13 September 1877 – 7 May 1957) was a German army officer, scientist and explorer. He conducted several surveys and scientific investigations in China, Tibet and surrounding regions, and led the Second German Antarctic Expeditio ...

and the south part of Ronne Ice Shelf, south of Henry Ice Rise; and continues west to about 8300S, 8500W, near

Martin Hills The Martin Hills () are an isolated range of predominantly ice-covered hills, or peaks, in Antarctica, nearly long, lying about south of the Pirrit Hills. The feature was positioned by the U.S. Ellsworth–Byrd Traverse Party on 10 December 19 ...

. The portion northeast of the Henry Ice Rise was discovered in 1957-58 by a U.S. traverse party from

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 ...

and named "Crary Trough" after

Albert P. Crary Albert Paddock Crary (July 25, 1911 – October 29, 1987), was a pioneer polar geophysicist and glaciologist. He was the first person to have set foot on both the North and South Poles, having made it to the North Pole on May 3, 1952 (with Joseph ...

, chief scientist with the

United States Antarctic Research Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the A ...

(USARP). The southwest portion was traced by U.S. seismic traverse parties, 1958–64, and the whole delineated in greater detail by the

Scott Polar Research Institute The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south o ...

(SPRI)-

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

(NSF)-

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fi ...

(TUD) airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79. The name "Crary Trough" was later set aside by

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

(US-ACAN) at the suggestion of Crary, who recommended that the entire trough be named after

Edward C. Thiel Edward C. Thiel (May 4, 1928 – November 9, 1961), was a geologist from the University of Wisconsin and chief seismologist at Ellsworth Station Antarctica, from 1956 to 1958. He was leader of the traverse party that discovered the Thiel Trough sub ...

(1928–1961). Thiel was the chief seismologist at Ellsworth Station from 1956 to 1958, the leader of the traverse party that discovered this feature, and he died in an air crash 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 on ...

in Antarctica. Oceanic basins of the Southern Ocean Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf {{marine-geo-stub