3 Quotes by marie Tharp

I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together. It was a once-in-a-lifetime — a once-in-the-history-of-the-world-opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s.

I was so busy making maps I let them argue. I figured I’d show them a picture of where the rift valley was and where it pulled apart. There’s truth in the old cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words and that seeing is believing.

I worked in the background for most of my career as a scientist, but I have absolutely no resentments. I thought I was lucky to have a job that was so interesting. Establishing the rift valley and the mid-ocean ridge that went all the way around the world for 40,000 miles—that was something important. You could only do that once. You can’t find anything bigger than that, at least on this planet.