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Era: Modern & Planetary·Cartographer: Marie Tharp, Bruce Heezen, & Heinrich Berann·Year: 1977·US Government Public Domain
Marie Tharp & Bruce Heezen’s World Ocean Floor Panorama (1977)
"The map that revealed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and proved continental drift and plate tectonics"
Working at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, geologist Marie Tharp painstakingly converted millions of acoustic sonar soundings into 2D depth profiles, discovering the continuous rift valley running down the center of the Atlantic Ocean.
Interactive Specimen Pan & ZoomAccession: G3201.C5 1977 .H4
Orientation: North-Up
1,370 × 860 mm
Marie Tharp, Bruce Heezen, & Heinrich Berann·1977·Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
ZOOM: 100%Repository Archive
Notable Cartographic Signatures
- The 40,000-mile continuous Mid-Ocean Ridge system clearly illuminated
- Deep ocean trenches (Mariana, Puerto Rico) painted in abyssal indigo
- Heinrich Berann's masterful Swiss alpine relief shading applied to underwater canyons
The Rhetorical & Ideological Argument
"The ocean floor is not a flat muddy abyss, but a dynamic volcanic rift system actively generating new Earth crust and moving continents."
Explicit Features
- The 40,000-mile continuous Mid-Ocean Ridge system clearly illuminated
- Deep ocean trenches (Mariana, Puerto Rico) painted in abyssal indigo
- Heinrich Berann's masterful Swiss alpine relief shading applied to underwater canyons
Intentional Omissions
- All water is drained away to expose pure bathymetric topography
Physical Specimen & Geodesy
Projection:
Mercator Oceanographic Projection
Orientation Axis:
North-Up
Physical Medium:
Hand-painted physiographic relief panorama by Heinrich Berann
Original Physical Dimensions:
1,370 × 860 mm
Custodial Repository:
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
Accession: G3201.C5 1977 .H4
Interdisciplinary Context & Connections
ChromologiumDEFINES
Abyssal Bathymetric Indigo Tints
MorphologiumPROVES
Subsea Rift Valley Tectonic Geology
Academic Provenance: Heezen, B. C., & Tharp, M. (1977)