Google honours American geologist Marie Tharp with interactive doodle on her life

Google is paying tribute to American geologist and oceanographic cartographer, Marie Tharp, who helped prove the theories of continental drift. She co-published the first world map of ocean floors.

Google is paying tribute to American geologist and oceanographic cartographer, Marie Tharp, who helped prove the theories of continental drift. She co-published the first world map of ocean floors. On November 21 in 1998, the Library of Congress named Ms. Tharp one of the greatest cartographers of the 20th century. The Google Doodle features an interactive biography of Ms. Tharp.

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Three prominent women, Caitlyn Larsen, Rebecca Nesel, and Dr. Tiara Moore, who are actively carrying on Marie Tharp’s legacy by making advancements in the typically male-dominated fields of ocean science and geology provide narration for her story.

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Map-making was introduced to Tharp by her father, who worked for the US Department of Agriculture. She pursued a master’s degree in petroleum geology at the University of Michigan, which was especially notable given the dearth of women in science careers at the time. In 1948, she relocated to New York City and became the first female employee at the Lamont Geological Observatory, where she met geologist Bruce Heezen. Using information collected by Heezen on ocean depths, Tharp produced maps of the ocean floor. With information collected from echo sonars — used to measure water depth — Tharp discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. However, her findings were initally dismissed by Heezen as “girl talk”. Tharp and Hezeen went on to publish the first map of the ocean floor in the North Atlantic in 1957.

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