Navy renames oceanographic survey ship after OHIO geologist 玛丽Tharp, 谁帮助发现了板块构造

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced on March 8, 国际妇女节, that the Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship formerly named USNS Maury has been renamed 美国SNS 玛丽Tharp.

更名是为了纪念bet8九州登录入口的校友萨普, who graduated from the 文理学院 in 1943. She went on to become a pioneering geologist and oceanographic cartographer who created the first scientific maps of the Atlantic Ocean floor and provided the first understanding of plate tectonics and continental drift.

“I’m pleased to announce the former USNS Maury will be renamed in honor of pioneering geologist and oceanographic cartographer, 玛丽Tharp. Her dedication to research brought life to the unknown ocean world and proved important information about the earth, 而作为一名女性，在一个男性主导的行业,德尔·托罗说 新闻发布会上. The renaming occurred after a congressionally mandated Naming Commission outlined several military assets that required renaming due to confederate ties.

“随着我们伟大国家历史的发展, we must put forth the effort to recognize figures who positively influenced our society. This renaming honors just one of the many historic women who have made a significant impact on not only our Navy, 但是我们的国家,德尔·托罗说.

The USNS 玛丽Tharp (T-AGS 66) is currently assigned to Military Sealift Command and is in the Persian Gulf.

Tharp confirmed the theory of continental drift and plate tectonics

"Fellow geographer and OHIO alumna 玛丽Tharp had a similar, 通往我们职业的非直接途径,荣誉校长兼理事M. Duane Nellis in a November 2018 First Friday message to the campus. "She earned her bachelor’s degrees in English and music from bet8九州登录入口 in 1943; however, it was a geology class here in 雅典 that first ignited a spark that not only changed the course of her career, 还有地理专业的现状,内利斯说。, 一个地理学家.

"Ms. Tharp used her liberal arts skills from bet8九州登录入口 to map the ocean floor during a time when superstitions and sexism prevented women from even setting foot on a ship. Her discovery confirmed the theory of continental drift and plate tectonics. Her work mapped 70 percent of the Earth’s surface at a time when no one fully understood what was beneath the ocean’s depths. The 图书馆 of Congress even named her one of the four greatest cartographers of the 20th 世纪，”他说.

Nellis described watching many graduates with liberal arts degrees having careers in exactly what they had studied, while many others turned their liberal arts degrees into other successful professions that they loved.

“我们从文科学位中获得的技能, 比如批判性思维, 解决问题, communication and respect for the viewpoints of others, are transferable to a wide variety of professions; I hear this all the time from employers,内利斯说.

"In geography, we seek to make sense of the complicated world in which we live. In college, we try to do the same and map our own paths forward. But, as we have learned throughout history, maps change and evolve. New discoveries and revelations lead to better understanding," he concluded.

Nance takes continental drift to Supercontinent Cycle

海军的新闻稿详细说明了萨普是如何, while examining photographic data she used to create the highly detailed seafloor profiles in the mid-1950s, "noticed a cleft in the ocean floor that she deduced to be a rift valley that ran along the ridge crest and continued along the length of its axis, 大陆漂移的证据. 当时，美国的共识是.S. scientific community held continental drift to be impossible, 但后来的研究证实了萨普的假设. Her work thus proved instrumental to the development of Plate Tectonic Theory, a revolutionary idea in the field of geology at the time."

几十年后, another bet8九州登录入口 geologist would publish his work describing an amazing history of the world, a cycle of mountains rising and continents colliding.

A 1997 book by bet8九州登录入口 Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences Damian娘娘腔的男人 玛格丽特·汤普森描述了他们的 研究地球的地质记录,  超大陆旋回, and the history of ocean closing and mountain building on either side of the North Atlantic in the time window between about 650 and 260 million years ago. In geologic time, that's somewhere between the Earth's first animals up through the Age of Dinosaurs.

Last year, Nance and Thompson brought together scientists from around the world 在一本新书中—with new scientific insights that revolutionize the understanding of the origin and evolution of the Appalachian Mountains and mountain ranges of the same age in Europe and northwest Africa. Thompson is Professor Emerita of Geosciences at Wellesley College.

"I had a 5-foot by 3-foot copy of (Bruce) Heezen and Tharp's map on my office wall in Clippinger for 25 years - a great teaching tool and an endless source of both wonder and information,南希说。.