Marie Tharp Shining a light on the ocean floor There are times in history when individuals with apparently wild ideas break all established norms and offer us a new way of seeing and understanding the world. MarieTharp confronted bias and disdain to bring to light and colour 70% of our planet, discovering for us the mysteries that remained hidden below the waters of the oceans. Marie was born in Michigan (USA) in 1920, in a family united by their love of science and letters. She wanted to pursue literature, but only men were allowed; instead, she graduated in English and music. She was aware of what the future held for her as a woman: teacher, secretary or nurse. She chose the first option. However, in 1943, when the USA was immersed in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the shortage of men opened doors for women in new professional fields. Marie signed up for a Master’s in petroleum geology and worked for some years in the industry as one of the first Petroleum Geology Girls . In 1948, she left her position in a petroleum company and took a chance in New York. Despite holding Master’s degrees in geology and maths, she could only apply for a drafting position at Columbia University. During the years of the Cold War, the United States government injected large amounts of money to fund the study of the oceans, and Marie dedicated herself to the company of the geologist Bruce Heezen, tracking sunken military planes. Later, they started to map the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean in a collaboration that lasted 25 years. Bruce acquired the data while onboard the ship and Marie interpreted them on land, as women were forbidden to board. In 1953, while sketching the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, she discovered a crack (rift) that, according to her calculations, should be enormous. Aware that this discovery was revolutionary, she checked her results several times. Her colleague Bruce initially dismissed her findings as ‘girl talk ’; after a year of protracted discussions and the production of new pieces of evidence, he relented and recognised that the ‘girl’ was right. The discovery was significant, as it discounted the expanding Earth hypothesis and gave credibility to a theory neglected until then: continental drift. To the map of the North Atlantic were added maps of the South Atlantic, Indian and Antarctic oceans and, finally, of the whole oceanic floor (in 1977). The oceans will never again be a uniform monotonous blue spot. Her maps completely changed geological thinking and gave rise to the theory of plate tectonics. However, her contributions were silenced, and the scientific community did not recognize her findings until the 1990s. Despite this, Marie never surrendered to discouragement or resentment because she had in front of her an exciting challenge: ‘ … a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together. It was a once-in-a-lifetime — a once-in-the-history-of-the-world — opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s. ’ And she knew how to take advantage of this opportunity to grow. I was so busy making maps I let them argue. There’s truth in the old cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. 28
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