Extending modern cartography to the ocean depths:military patronage, Cold War priorities, and theHeezeneTharp mapping project, 1952e1959

Ronald E. Doel a,*, Tanya J. Levin b and Mason K. Marker c

a Department of Geosciences, joint with Department of History, Program in History of Science,Oregon State University, 306 Milam Hall Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

b Independent Scholar, Muenster, Germanyc Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, USA

Abstract

The rst comprehensive map of any ocean basindcovering the North Atlantic regiondwas created in theUS in the 1950s. Compiled by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp, researchers at Columbia UniversitysLamontGeological Observatory, the HeezeneTharp physiographic map of 1957 was signicant in several re-spects. It dened the large-scale physiological provinces of the seaoor, and highlighted itsmajor physical fea-tures (including the Rift Valley of mid-oceanic ridge, which Tharp discovered). Military funding foroceanographic research in the early Cold War made possible extensive sea voyages that provided theseColumbia researchers sea-oor depth proles and other critical information; military secrecy persuaded Hee-zen andTharp to adopt the physiographic approachwhennational security restrictionsmade newbathymetricmaps born classied. But overlooked until now is that the HeezeneTharp map also deeply depended on ex-tensive support from Bell Labs, then laboring to install the rst transatlantic telephone lines. Heezens hopethat the map would support the theory of the expanding earth over the resurrected theory of continental driftdid not succeed. But the 1957NorthAtlantic Physiographic Chart did rearm that representations of the sea-oor, mediated by new technologies, fundamentally reected changing motivations for studying the oceans. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: North Atlantic; Cartography; Oceanography; Physiographic map; Heezen; Tharp; Cold War

Journal of Historical Geography 32 (2006) 605e626www.elsevier.com/locate/jhg* Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: doelr@geo.oregonstate.edu; linguipotence@yahoo.com; markerm@oit.edu

0305-7488/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2005.10.011