From smooth to bumpy, how Marie Tharp changed our view of the sea floor

slide_246579_1423179_freeGive a woman some data, and she’ll change the science world. At least that’s what Marie Tharp did. A skilled cartographer, her maps showed the bottom of the ocean was not just a vast boring underwater plain, but contained bumps, ridges, mountains and trenches. And you know Marie’s really kickass when her findings incited Jacques Cousteau to go on an expedition with a giant underwater camera to disprove her. Spoiler alert: He failed and she that proved plate tectonics is actually a thing. Check out this wonderful little video narrated by oceanographer and bubble scientist Helen Czerski about geology and perseverance, both of which have incredibly long time scales.

 

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