July 30: Birthday of Marie Tharp
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are involved in the exploration and study of the ocean.
History Note
Marie Tharp was born on July 30, 1920, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Her father worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture collecting soil samples and doing land surveys. Marie sometimes worked with her father, which introduced her to the process of drawing maps.
Tharp attended college as a music and English major. After she graduated in 1942, she had the opportunity to participate in a geology program at the University of Michigan. Because so many young men were serving in the military during World War II, there were some openings for women to get scientific jobs generally held by men. Tharp earned a Master’s degree in geology and another Bachelor’s in mathematics. She began working in 1948 at the Lamont Geological Laboratory (now the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) at Columbia University in New York.
Though humans had been sailing on the world’s oceans for thousands of years, they knew very little about the ocean floor. Many people thought it was largely flat and featureless. Tharp became part of a team, along with co-worker Bruce Heezen, that wanted to learn more about the ocean floor.
Since Tharp was a woman, she was not at first allowed on the ships that collected data. Heezen used SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) to take measurements of ocean depths. He sent the data back to Tharp. Using pens and rulers, Tharp and her assistants made detailed drawings of the ocean floor based on the data Heezen collected. The drawings showed that the ocean floor had canyons, ridges, and mountains.
The team published a map of the North Atlantic Ocean in 1957, followed by maps of the South Atlantic Ocean in 1961 and the Indian Ocean in 1964. Tharp and Heezen’s team completed the first full map of the world’s oceans in 1977.
Austrian artist Heinrich Berann painted this “World Ocean Floor” map in 1977 based on the research and drawings of Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp. Image courtesy the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
After Tharp retired from Columbia in 1983, she opened a map business. She died at the age of 86 in 2006. The Library of Congress recognized her as one of the outstanding cartographers of the 20th century.
Marie Tharp finally got to go on a four-month research voyage in 1968. This image shows her aboard the USNS Kane with Marty Weiss (far left) and Al Ballard (center). Image courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Bill Woodward, USNS Kane Collection.
Learn More
Watch this overview of Marie Tharp’s life and work.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
