High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Marie Tharp July 30, 1920 - August 23, 2006 was a geologist and oceanographic cartographer who, along with her colleague Bruce Heezen, mapped the ocean floor including the Mid-Oceanic Ridges, a line of undersea mountains. Tharp was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Her father, William, made soil classification maps for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Her mother, Bertha, was an instructor in German and Latin. Tharp graduated from Ohio University in 1943 with bachelor's degrees in English and music and four minors. She later received a master's degree in geology from the University of Michigan before earning a degree in mathematics from the University of Tulsa while working as a geologist for the Stanolind Oil company. Moving to New York in 1948, Tharp was employed by Maurice Ewing at the Lamont Geological Laboratory now the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, initially as a general drafter. There, Tharp met Heezen and their early work together used photographic data to locate downed aircraft from World War II.