McKelvey Valley is a valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 between the western part of the Olympus Range

Olympus Range

Olympus Range is a primarily ice-free mountain range of Victoria Land with peaks over , between Victoria and McKelvey Valleys on the north and Wright Valley on the south. Mapped by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition , 1958–59, and named for the mythological home of the...

 and the Insel Range

Insel Range

Insel Range is a series of ice-free flat-topped peaks resembling islands which rise above the surrounding terrain and separate McKelvey Valley from Balham Valley, in Victoria Land. So named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition because of the resemblance to islands....

, in Victoria Land

Victoria Land

Victoria Land is a region of Antarctica bounded on the east by the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and on the west by Oates Land and Wilkes Land. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after the UK's Queen Victoria...

. It was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (1958–59) for B.C. McKelvey, a geologist of Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...

, who, with P.N. Webb, undertook the first geological exploration of this area (1957–58), and was again in Wright Valley

Wright Valley

The Wright Valley is the central one of the three large Dry Valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains, located west of McMurdo Sound at approximately . Wright Valley contains the Onyx River, the largest river in Antarctica, Lake Brownworth, the origin of Onyx River, and Lake Vanda, which is fed by...

with the VUWAE, 1958-59.