A brief history on Marie Tharp
During WWII the draft left many classrooms and job positions empty, allowing women the opportunity to enter historically male-dominated fields, including geology and cartography. Historically, women were not allowed into certain fields, which included geography. Even when allowed, their work was overshadowed or treated as inconsequential. One of the most brilliant Cartographers of all time, Marie Tharp, contributed significantly during this time. Tharp created the first map of the ocean floor using sonar taken from countless expeditions, all without being allowed to step on a ship.
Early Life:
Marie Tharp was born on July 30th, 1920. Her father was a soil sampler, her mother a teacher. (Romano & Chiocci, 2022) To ensure her father could work without any obstruction, her family moved seasonally, wherever the ground was softest. This led to Tharp attending multiple public schools throughout her life, and doing fieldwork with her father, giving her early exposure to cartography and the sciences. After graduating high school, she enrolled in Ohio University. She entered college with the intention of receiving a music degree, but she often tried new things and considered changing her mind. She ended up graduating with a major in both music and English (as well as 4 different minors). After her graduation, many men were being drafted into WWII, leaving classrooms and workplaces empty. This opportunity allowed Tharp to achieve her master’s degree in geology. With that degree, she started working in petroleum, but she found it dull. So dull, she decided to get her master’s degree in mathematics at the same time. (Tucker, 2021)
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After four years of her current work, Tharp moved to New York, and a job for the Lamont Geological Survey. (Tucker, 2021) Here, she met Bruce Heezen. Heezen was only a graduate student at the time, but the two of them would be working together for decades after their initial meeting. Due to some difference in agreements with a professor they worked under, Tharp was fired, while Bruce was able to remain due to his tenure. Bruce then hired Tharp and they worked together exclusively.
Bruce and Tharp began working together on a map of the ocean floor. Women were not allowed on voyaging ships at this time (4). So, Bruce collected data using SONAR and gave it to Tharp. She interpreted the data and managed to create the first image of the ocean floor. This of course, revealed the mid-Atlantic ridge, major evidence towards the theory of continental drift, which was scientific heresy. (Tharp, 1986) Her initial proposal was dismissed as “girl talk”. (Romano & Chiocci, 2022) She had to present the data multiple times to convince Heezen, and even then, it took over a year. (Tharp, 1986)
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Recognition and maps
Despite working together on these maps, and Tharp doing most of the mapping herself, Heezen was given most of the credit for their work. It was not until much later in life that Tharp was given recognition, and she was given several awards later in life and after her death. Several of her maps are in the Penn State Geospatial Library, they’re beautiful, and you can clearly see how long the hand-drawn maps must have taken her. I encourage you to look at them and see for yourself one of the most important pieces in geographic and geologic history.
There is a current display in the Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information on Marie Tharp.
Learn more about additional resources on Marie Tharp:
Marie Tharp Digital Content
Niles is third year student at Penn State majoring in Geoscience. He has worked one several research projects relate to education and science communication. Niles’s interests include geology, GIS, gardening, and rock hunting. Niles has been working at the Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial information since October 2023.
Sources:
(1)Romano, M., & Chiocci, F. (2020). Celebrating Marie Tharp. Science. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe7084
(2)Tharp, M. (1986). Mappers of the Deep. https://marietharp.ldeo.columbia.edu/content/mappers-deep-marie-tharp-and-henry-frankel-natural-history
(3) Tucker, N. (2021, August 9). Marie Tharp: Mapping the ocean floor. The Library of Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/08/marie-tharp-mapping-the-ocean-floor/