ocean floor

Maps at the Bottom of the Ocean

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The Floor of the Oceans map available for viewing at the AGSL.
Marie Tharp.

By Brendan Dooley

As March marks International Women’s History Month, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the contributions of AGS member Marie Tharp (1920-2006). Before Tharp’s research and attention to detail in plotting soundings from colleagues, we might still be in the dark regarding the topography of the ocean floor, plate tectonics and a formalized idea of Pangea.

Some of the books addressing Marie Tharp’s contributions to oceanography and cartography.

Tharp was a multi-talented researcher and true renaissance learner who had multiple minors, majors and graduate degree paths under her belt, including being an accomplished drafter which led to her work in mapping the oceans’ floors.

This barely scratches the surface of her accomplishments though, and you can learn much more about her here at a “Washington Post” story about her life, through books at every level in the AGSL circulating collection (like Theater of the World: The Maps That Made History, Ocean Speaks, and Women in American Cartography), some of her maps digitized in the AGSL collection here and more.

The AGSL is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., on the third floor of the Golda Meir Library at UWM’s campus.

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