Meet Marie Tharp (1920-2006), the first person to map the Earth's
underwater mountain ridge, in this inspiring picture book biography from
the author of Shark Lady.
From a young age, Marie Tharp loved watching the world. She loved
solving problems. And she loved pushing the limits of what girls and
women were expected to do and be. In the mid-twentieth century, women
were not welcome in the sciences, but Marie was tenacious. She got a job
at a laboratory in New York. But then she faced another barrior: women
were not allowed on the research ships (they were considered bad luck on
boats). So instead, Marie stayed back and dove deep into the data her
colleagues recorded. She mapped point after point and slowly revealed a
deep rift valley in the ocean floor. At first the scientific community
refused to believe her, but her evidence was irrefutable. She proved to
the world that her research was correct. The mid-ocean ridge that Marie
discovered is the single largest geographic feature on the planet, and
she mapped it all from her small, cramped office.