Google on Monday celebrated the life of Mary Tharp, an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer who helped prove theories of continental drift, by launching a Google Doodle. The special animated Doodle features an interactive exploration of Tharp’s achievements in mapping the oceans. Mary Tharp co-published the first world map of sea level. On November 21, 1998, he was named one of the Greatest Cartographers of the 20th Century by the Library of Congress. Born on July 19, 1920, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States, Tharp was the only child of her parents.
In today’s Doodle, her story is told by Kaitlyn Larsen, Rebecca Nessel, and Dr. Tiara Moore, three remarkable women who are living up to Tharp’s legacy by making strides in currently traditionally male-dominated fields of oceanography and geology. Who is living
Mary Tharp’s father worked for the US Department of Agriculture and gave her an early introduction to mapmaking. She attended the University of Michigan for her master’s degree in petroleum geology—this was especially influential because very few women worked in science during this period. She moved to New York City in 1948 and became the first woman to work at the Lamont Geological Observatory where she met geologist Bruce Hazen.
Hagen collected ocean-depth data in the Atlantic Ocean, which Tharp used to create maps of the mysterious ocean floor.
Tharp donated his entire map collection to the Library of Congress in 1995. At the 100th anniversary celebration of its Geography and Maps Division, the Library of Congress named him one of the most important cartographers of the 20th century.