Hali Felt
Autore di Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor
Opere di Hali Felt
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Istruzione
- University of Iowa (MFA)
- Attività lavorative
- professor of writing
journalist - Organizzazioni
- University of Pittsburgh
Utenti
Recensioni
This book tells the story of Marie Tharpe, an extraordinary oceanographer who was decades ahead of her time and the first scientist to map the seafloor. During her work with Bruce Heezen, she discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which became one of the most crucial pieces of evidence for the theory of continental drift. It was somewhat conjectural at times, but I still enjoyed it overall and learned more about oceanography in general as well.
Interesting story, but the author chose to present masses of data and detail at the expense of keeping my interest. DNF, not because I wanted to not finish, but rather because the fiction I was reading was so much more gripping
Statistiche
- Opere
- 1
- Utenti
- 134
- Popolarità
- #151,727
- Voto
- 3.5
- Recensioni
- 13
- ISBN
- 3
Marie Tharp is one of the people that was always behind the greatness - she drew the first maps of the mid-ocean ridge System, a continuous ring of volcanoes and valleys that are found on the edges of continents. This is a big deal because it proved the existence of plate tectonic theory, which at the time, was considered a fringe theory and those that believed in it was not invited to conferences and discussions.
Marie did not work by herself - as a women in the 1950's, even one with a degree, she did no research herself, did not get her name on any papers, and her contribution to projects was usually as a drafter/illustrator - creating maps and graphs for the male scientists around her. As a result, she isn't well know outside of a small group of people. To confuse matters, it was only she was working with Bruce Heezen, was she able to add her own ideas. However, even then, she was not given credit and as a result, its impossible to figure what was hers and what was Bruce's
However, she is given full credit for the maps she made today. Unfortunately, the wider geological society assumed that she made them with Bruce overseeing the work, over time, the two scientists were seen as a duo, but once Bruce passed away, all his work was given to other scientists, even though Marie was doing the majority of the work on it.
This book is well written and well researched. The author clearly wanted to be respectful of the scientist, but at times, I felt took liberties with the scenery and conversation - by the authors own admittance, while she could place Marie Thorp in a certain place and time, she made up the conversation. This isn't always bad and in places, actually adds to the book. But other times, I found that it was more distracting than it actually was.
One last thing - I would have liked to see more of how scientific community was convinced of plate tectonic theory. Marie wasn't involved in this, but her maps had a lot to do with changing of minds. I suspect the author made a point to stick to Marie and Bruce in the book, but making it more clear would have cemented why this map is so important.
Highly recommended, but it can be dense.… (altro)