Marie Tharp

Marie Tharp (1920 - 2006)

American geologist and oceanographic cartographer;

her 1952 discovery and mapping of the 10,000-mile-long

Mid-Atlantic Ridge proved that the sea floor was spreading and

caused a paradigm shift in earth science, vindicating

the then-controversial theories of plate tectonics and continental drift;

many scientists infamously dismissed her explanation as "girl talk."