Glacial cross-shelf troughs, often hundreds of metres deep and tens to hundreds of kilometres long, are characteristic components of most high-latitude continental shelves (e.g. Anderson 1999). Most Arctic shelves are dissected by large cross-shelf troughs, separated by shallower sedimentary banks (Batchelor & Dowdeswell 2014). The geomorphology of these troughs provides information about the extent and dynamics of ice flow on polar continental margins during Quaternary glacial periods. This study uses Olex data (www.olex.no), consisting of multiple single-beam echo-sounder lines, to describe and interpret three large, though relatively poorly known, cross-shelf troughs on the continental shelf of SW Greenland between about 62° and 65° N (Fig. 1a–d).