Google Doodle Celebrates American Geologist Marie Tharp

Google celebrated Marie Tharp, an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer, who co-published the first world map of ocean floors.

Tharp was an only child born on 30 July 1920 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Her father, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provided her with an early introduction to map-making.

In 1948, Tharp moved to New York City and became the first woman to work at the Lamont Geological Observatory where she met geologist Bruce Heezen.

Heezen gathered ocean-depth data in the Atlantic Ocean, which Tharp used to develop maps of the mysterious ocean floor. New findings from echo sounders enabled her to discover the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Tharp underlined that the parallel valleys seen in the mapped terrain were evidence of active centers where the seafloor was spreading apart.

She donated her entire map collection to the Library of Congress in 1995. On this day in 1998, the Library of Congress named her one of the most significant cartographers of the 20th century.