When the Ocean Floor Came Alive

In 1957, Marie Tharp and Bruce C. Heezen created the first relief map of the Atlantic Ocean floor, revealing a dynamic landscape of ridges, valleys, and plateaus. This contradicted the belief that the seafloor was flat and featureless. Despite incomplete data, their work provided crucial evidence supporting plate tectonics and continental drift theories by showing earthquake patterns along the mid-Atlantic ridge. The map's style was influenced by Cold War concerns, allowing them to share approximate information without revealing classified data.