Earth and Environment Atlas

How The Planet Works
Scientists

Marie Tharp

Oceanographic Cartographer

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An American geologist and oceanographic cartographer who, barred from research ships for most of her career because she was a woman, mapped the ocean floor from Bruce Heezen's sounding data anyway, and read in its shape the Mid-Atlantic Ridge's central rift valley, the seafloor evidence that helped turn continental drift into plate tectonics.

Facts
Birth Date
1920-07-30 1
Birth Year
1920 1
Death Date
2006-08-23 1
Death Year
2006 1
Birthplace
Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States 1
Nationality
American 1
Defining Contribution
Collaborated with geologist Bruce Heezen to produce the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor, and in doing so identified the rift valley running down the center of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a discovery that provided crucial physical evidence for seafloor spreading and continental drift at a time when both were still widely doubted. 1
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