Today marks what would have been Marie Tharp’s 104th birthday. The pioneering geologist and cartographer, who created some of the world’s first maps of the ocean floor, has a legacy that continues to reverberate across ocean sciences today; her influence felt in classrooms, laboratories and aboard research vessels like the R/V Marcus G. Langseth.
Tharp began working at the Lamont Geological Laboratory (now the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) in 1948, at a time when the sea floor was largely shrouded in mystery. That would change in the next few decades, thanks in large part to Tharp, who worked tirelessly to chart the depths of the ocean—creating the first complete map in 1977, with her colleague Bruce Heezen, and helping to support the (at the time) radical theory of plate tectonics or continental drift.
As a woman in a male-dominated field, Tharp faced great obstacles in her search for answers, but she was never deterred. Despite being prohibited from traveling aboard the ships that collected the very data she used to map the seafloor and having her theories of seafloor spreading dismissed as “girl talk,” Tharp has since been celebrated as a groundbreaking thinker and revolutionary cartographer, whose impact on our understanding of the world continues to inspire scientists like Vicki Ferrini, a marine geologist and senior research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who is working to map the entire seafloor by 2030.
In recent years, State of the Planet has highlighted Tharp’s legacy in her own words and in the words of those who have carried her vision forward. Learn more by visiting our Marie Tharp website and in the stories below.
Marie Tharp’s Adventures in Mapping the Seafloor, In Her Own Words: The pioneering mapmaker explains how she and colleagues discovered underwater mountain ranges 40,000 miles long, and helped to prove that the continents move.
Lamont’s Marie Tharp: She Drew the Maps That Shook the World: On the 100th anniversary of her birth, Tharp’s grit and brilliance are as legendary as her work.
8 Surprising Facts About Marie Tharp, Mapmaker Extraordinaire: Maybe you already know that she created some of the first maps of the ocean floor and helped discover plate tectonics. Here are some lesser-known facts about this history-making cartographer.
Pod of the Planet Ep. 8: Marie Tharp’s Girl Talk: In this episode of Pod of the Planet, we celebrate the life of Marie Tharp and the inspiration she’s been and continues to be to many scientists today.
Google Doodle Celebrates Marie Tharp, Who Mapped the Ocean Floor: On November 21, 2022, an interactive Google Doodle highlighted Tharp’s pioneering work.
