So said the New York Times headline when geologist Marie Tharp discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the gash in the earth that proved the theory of continental drift and helped establish the field of plate tectonics. Tharp made this discovery while producing the first comprehensive maps of the ocean floor. Author Hali Felt, who chronicled Tharp’s life in her book, Soundings, spoke to LQ about this remarkable and overlooked scientist.
Lewis H. Lapham talks with Jim Holt, author of When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought. More
Lewis H. Lapham talks with Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States. More
Lewis Lapham talks with William Hogeland about the creation of the United States’ first standing army and its victory over a coalition of Indian forces that sought to halt the country’s expansion. More
Lewis Lapham talks with author Adam Hochschild about the struggles of the antiwar movement in World War I–era Britain. More
Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm. More
Lewis H. Lapham talks with Philipp Blom, author of Nature’s Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present. More
