1.
Marie Tharp
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Marie Tharp was an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer who, in partnership with Bruce Heezen, created the first scientific map of the entire ocean floor. Tharps work revealed the presence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, causing a shift in earth science that led to acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics. Tharp was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan and her mother, Bertha, was an instructor in German and Latin, her father, William, made soil classification maps for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Tharp graduated from Ohio University in 1943 with bachelors degrees in English and music, moving to New York in 1948, Tharp was employed by Maurice Ewing at the Lamont Geological Laboratory at Columbia University, initially as a general drafter. There Tharp met Heezen and in early work together used photographic data to locate downed aircraft from World War II, later, they began working together to map the topography of the ocean floor. Restricted from conducting research at sea early in her due to her gender. Tharp independently used data collected from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutions research ship Atlantis and her work with Heezen represented the first systematic attempt to map the entire ocean floor. Tharp and Heezen published their first physiographic map of the North Atlantic in 1957, collaborating with the Austrian landscape painter Heinrich Berann, they published their map of the entire ocean floor in 1977. But under Tharps direction Heezen eventually turned to the theories of plate tectonics. Tharp continued to serve on the faculty of Columbia University until 1983, after which she operated a business in South Nyack. Tharp donated her map collection and notes to the Map and Geography Division of the Library of Congress in 1995, in 2001, Tharp was awarded the first annual Lamont-Doherty Heritage Award at her home institution for her lifes work as a pioneer of oceanography. Tharp died of cancer in Nyack, New York on August 23,2006, in 2009, Ocean in Google Earth included the Marie Tharp Historical Map layer, to allow people to view Tharps map using the Google Earth interface. In 2013, author Hali Felt published a biography of Marie Tharp entitled Soundings and it was cited by the New York Times for its standing as an eloquent testament both to Tharp’s importance and to Felt’s powers of imagination. The Marie Tharp Fellowship is a competitive academic visiting fellowship awarded to women to work with researchers at Columbia Universitys Earth Institute, Heezen, B C, Bunce, Elizabeth T, Hersey, J B, Tharpe, Marie. Tectonic fabric of the atlantic and indian oceans and continental drift, philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Tharpe, Marie, Friedman, Gerald M. Mapping the world ocean floor, c250 Celebrates 250 Columbians Ahead of Their Time, Entry on Marie Tharp. Marie Tharp Honored at Women Pioneers Seminar, the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Marie Tharp, Pioneering Mapmaker of the Ocean Floor, Dies
2.
Vinton, Iowa
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Vinton is a city in Benton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,257 in the 2010 census, an increase from 5,102 in the 2000 census and it is also part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area. Vinton is the county seat of Benton County and it was named for Hon. Plynn Vinton, a state legislator. The first railroad line was extended to Vinton in 1869, vintons longitude and latitude coordinates in decimal form are 42.164144, -92.026077. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 4.83 square miles. Vinton is located on U. S. Route 218 and the Cedar River, the towns extensive tree cover was damaged by a derecho on July 11,2011. This region has significant seasonal temperature differences, going from warm summers to cold winters. There is precipitation year-round, and snowfall occurs in almost all years, most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms and a very occasional tropical system. Vinton averages 32.7 inches of precipitation annually, may and June are the wettest months, January and February, the driest. This area is classified as humid because it is not dry enough to be classified as semi-arid or arid, as of the census of 2010, there were 5,257 people,2,187 households, and 1,397 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,109.1 inhabitants per square mile, there were 2,299 housing units at an average density of 485.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 97. 8% White,0. 3% African American,0. 2% Native American,0. 3% Asian,0. 2% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 0% of the population. 31. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 16. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.91. The median age in the city was 40.3 years. 24. 7% of residents were under the age of 18,8. 1% were between the ages of 18 and 24,23. 1% were from 25 to 44,24. 5% were from 45 to 64, and 19. 5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47. 3% male and 52. 7% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 5,102 people,2,116 households, and 1,390 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,187.7 people per square mile, there were 2,227 housing units at an average density of 518.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 98. 26% White,0. 25% African American,0. 18% Native American,0. 27% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,0. 22% from other races, and 0. 80% from two or more races
3.
University of Iowa
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The University of Iowa is a flagship public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1847, Iowa is the oldest university in the state, the University of Iowa is organized into eleven colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees. The university was the developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree. The Iowa alumni network exceeds 250,000, and the university budgeted revenues and expenses of $3.513 billion for 2015, the University of Iowas athletic teams, the Hawkeyes, compete in Division I of the NCAA and are members of the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes field 24 varsity teams and have won 27 national championships, the University of Iowa was founded on February 25,1847, just 59 days after Iowa was admitted to the Union. The Constitution of the State of Iowa refers to a State University to be established in Iowa City without branches at any other place. The legal name of the university is the State University of Iowa, the first faculty offered instruction at the university beginning in March 1855 to students in the Old Mechanics Building, located where Seashore Hall is now. In September 1855, there were 124 students, of whom forty-one were women, the first president of the university was Amos Dean. The original campus consisted of the Iowa Old Capitol Building and the 10 acres of land on which it stood, until that date, it had been the third capitol of the Territory of Iowa. When the capitol of Iowa was moved to Des Moines in 1857, in 1855, Iowa became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. The university offered its first doctorate in 1898, the university was the first state university to recognize the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allied Union. Also, the University of Iowa was the first Big Ten institution to promote an African American to the position of vice president. A shooting took place on campus on November 1,1991, in the summer of 2008, flood waters breached the Coralville Reservoir spillway, damaging more than 20 major campus buildings. Several weeks after the waters receded university officials placed a preliminary estimate on flood damage at $231.75 million. Later, the university estimated that repairs would cost about $743 million, later in 2008, UNESCO designated Iowa City the worlds third City of Literature, making it part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Iowa legislators ultimately did not support the plan, in 2015, the Iowa Board of Regents selected Bruce Harreld, a business consultant with limited experience in academic administration, to succeed Sally Mason as president. In July 2016, the university took over the former AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Four bachelors programs are offered in Des Moines, an additional four masters-level programs are offered in Des Moines at the universitys site in the citys Western Gateway Park. The University of Iowas main campus, located in Iowa City, was designed by architect D. Elwood Cook
4.
Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción, Columbia administers annually the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally,100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, researchers, faculty, Columbia is second only to Harvard University in the number of Nobel Prize-winning affiliates, with over 100 recipients of the award as of 2016. In 1746 an act was passed by the assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the colleges first president, Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the colleges first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan, in 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queens College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777. The suspension continued through the occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The colleges library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a hospital first by American. Loyalists were forced to abandon their Kings College in New York, the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where they founded Kings Collegiate School. After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, the Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1,1784, it passed an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called Kings College. The Regents finally became aware of the colleges defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed a revision committee, in April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees. On May 21,1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, prior to serving at the university, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The colleges enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the college functioned. In 1857, the college moved from the Kings College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, during the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F. A. P. Barnard, the institution assumed the shape of a modern university
5.
Seabed
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The seabed is the bottom of the ocean. Most of the oceans have a structure, created by common physical phenomena, mainly from tectonic movement. The mid-ocean ridge, as its name implies, is a rise through the middle of all the oceans. Typically a rift runs along the edge of this ridge, along tectonic plate edges there are typically oceanic trenches – deep valleys, created by the mantle circulation movement from the mid-ocean mountain ridge to the oceanic trench. Hotspot volcanic island ridges are created by volcanic activity, erupting periodically, in areas with volcanic activity and in the oceanic trenches there are hydrothermal vents – releasing high pressure and extremely hot water and chemicals into the typically freezing water around it. Deep ocean water is divided into layers or zones, each with features of salinity, pressure, temperature and marine life. Lying along the top of the plain is the abyssal zone. The hadal zone – which includes the oceanic trenches, lies between 6, 000–11,000 metres and is the deepest oceanic zone, the acronym mbsf meaning meters below the seafloor is a convention used for depths below the seafloor. Benthos is the community of organisms which live on, in, or near the seabed and this community lives in or near marine sedimentary environments, from tidal pools along the foreshore, out to the continental shelf, and then down to the abyssal depths. The benthic zone is the region on, in and immediately above the seabed, including the sediment surface. Benthos generally live in relationship with the substrate bottom. Examples of contact soil layers include sand bottoms, rocky outcrops, coral, each area of the seabed has typical features such as common soil composition, typical topography, salinity of water layers above it, marine life, magnetic direction of rocks, and sedimentation. Seabed topography is flat where sedimentation is heavy and covers the tectonic features, marine life is abundant in the deep sea, especially around hydrothermal vents. Large deep sea communities of life have been discovered around black and white smokers—vents emitting chemicals toxic to humans. This marine life receives its energy both from the temperature difference and from chemosynthesis by bacteria. Brine pools are another seabed feature, usually connected to cold seeps, the seabed has been explored by submersibles such as Alvin and, to some extent, scuba divers with special equipment. The process that adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading. In recent years satellite images show a very clear mapping of the seabed, some childrens play songs include elements such as Theres a hole at the bottom of the sea, or A sailor went to sea
6.
Topography
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Topography is the study of the shape and features of the surface of the Earth and other observable astronomical objects including planets, moons, and asteroids. The topography of an area could refer to the shapes and features themselves. This field of geoscience and planetary science is concerned with detail in general, including not only relief but also natural and artificial features. This meaning is common in the United States, where topographic maps with elevation contours have made topography synonymous with relief. The older sense of topography as the study of place still has currency in Europe, topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms. This is also known as geomorphometry, in modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in digital form. It is often considered to include the representation of the landform on a map by a variety of techniques, including contour lines, hypsometric tints. The term topography originated in ancient Greece and continued in ancient Rome, the word comes from the Greek τόπος and -γραφία. In classical literature this refers to writing about a place or places, in Britain and in Europe in general, the word topography is still sometimes used in its original sense. Detailed military surveys in Britain were called Ordnance Surveys, and this term was used into the 20th century as generic for topographic surveys, the earliest scientific surveys in France were called the Cassini maps after the family who produced them over four generations. The term topographic surveys appears to be American in origin, the earliest detailed surveys in the United States were made by the “Topographical Bureau of the Army, ” formed during the War of 1812, which became the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1838. In the 20th century, the term started to be used to describe surface description in other fields where mapping in a broader sense is used. An objective of topography is to determine the position of any feature or more generally any point in terms of both a horizontal coordinate system such as latitude, longitude, and altitude, identifying features, and recognizing typical landform patterns are also part of the field. There are a variety of approaches to studying topography, which method to use depend on the scale and size of the area under study, its accessibility, and the quality of existing surveys. Work on one of the first topographic maps was begun in France by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, in areas where there has been an extensive direct survey and mapping program, the compiled data forms the basis of basic digital elevation datasets such as USGS DEM data. This data must often be cleaned to eliminate discrepancies between surveys, but it forms a valuable set of information for large-scale analysis. The original American topographic surveys involved not only recording of relief, remote sensing is a general term for geodata collection at a distance from the subject area. Besides their role in photogrammetry, aerial and satellite imagery can be used to identify and delineate terrain features, certainly they have become more and more a part of geovisualization, whether maps or GIS systems
7.
Cullum Geographical Medal
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The Cullum Geographical Medal is one of the oldest awards of the American Geographical Society. It was first awarded in 1896 to Robert E. Peary, the gold medal was designed by Lydia Field Emmet. On the front is the figure of a man standing in the bow of a boat. He has thrown down his oars upon discovering land and he shades his eyes with his hand as the boat progresses through the waves. A sea gull, hovering, indicates the proximity of land, the whole is supposed to represent enterprise and the spirit of exploration. Inscribed on the face of the medal is, The American Geographical Society of New York, the reverse, to typify achievement and award, bears a female figure - Columbia, the left hand resting on a globe and the right holding out a laurel wreath. Beneath the right arm is the tablet to bear the record of the achievement for which the award is made, on the side is the inscription, The Cullum Geographical Medal. Source, AGS The Cullum Geographical Medal, American Geographical Society, wright, John Kirtland, Geography in the making, the American Geographical Society, 1851–1951, New York, American Geographical Society. Presentation of the Cullum medal to the head Lama of Thyangboche Monastery, Nepal, June 15,1954
8.
Geology
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Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Geology can also refer generally to the study of the features of any terrestrial planet. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth by providing the evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life. Geology also plays a role in engineering and is a major academic discipline. The majority of data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These typically fall into one of two categories, rock and unconsolidated material, the majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three types of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The rock cycle is an important concept in geology which illustrates the relationships between three types of rock, and magma. When a rock crystallizes from melt, it is an igneous rock, the sedimentary rock can then be subsequently turned into a metamorphic rock due to heat and pressure and is then weathered, eroded, deposited, and lithified, ultimately becoming a sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock may also be re-eroded and redeposited, and metamorphic rock may also undergo additional metamorphism, all three types of rocks may be re-melted, when this happens, a new magma is formed, from which an igneous rock may once again crystallize. Geologists also study unlithified material which typically comes from more recent deposits and these materials are superficial deposits which lie above the bedrock. Because of this, the study of material is often known as Quaternary geology. This includes the study of sediment and soils, including studies in geomorphology, sedimentology and this theory is supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading, and the global distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity. This coupling between rigid plates moving on the surface of the Earth and the mantle is called plate tectonics. The development of plate tectonics provided a basis for many observations of the solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features could be explained as plate boundaries, mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, were explained as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart. Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes were explained as convergent boundaries, where one plate subducts under another, transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful earthquakes. Plate tectonics also provided a mechanism for Alfred Wegeners theory of continental drift and they also provided a driving force for crustal deformation, and a new setting for the observations of structural geology
9.
Oceanography
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Oceanography, also known as oceanology, is the study of the physical and the biological aspects of the ocean. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in the geologic past, humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on tides were recorded by Aristotle and Strabo, early exploration of the oceans was primarily for cartography and mainly limited to its surfaces and of the animals that fishermen brought up in nets, though depth soundings by lead line were taken. Although Juan Ponce de León in 1513 first identified the Gulf Stream, Franklin measured water temperatures during several Atlantic crossings and correctly explained the Gulf Streams cause. Franklin and Timothy Folger printed the first map of the Gulf Stream in 1769-1770, information on the currents of the Pacific Ocean was gathered by explorers of the late 18th century, including James Cook and Louis Antoine de Bougainville. James Rennell wrote the first scientific textbooks on oceanography, detailing the current flows of the Atlantic, during a voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1777, he mapped the banks and currents at the Lagullas. He was also the first to understand the nature of the intermittent current near the Isles of Scilly, Robert FitzRoy published a four-volume report of the Beagles three voyages. In 1841–1842 Edward Forbes undertook dredging in the Aegean Sea that founded marine ecology, the first superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, Matthew Fontaine Maury devoted his time to the study of marine meteorology, navigation, and charting prevailing winds and currents. His 1855 textbook Physical Geography of the Sea was one of the first comprehensive oceanography studies, many nations sent oceanographic observations to Maury at the Naval Observatory, where he and his colleagues evaluated the information and distributed the results worldwide. Despite all this, human knowledge of the oceans remained confined to the topmost few fathoms of the water, almost nothing was known of the ocean depths. The Royal Navys efforts to all of the worlds coastlines in the mid-19th century reinforced the vague idea that most of the ocean was very deep. As exploration ignited both popular and scientific interest in the regions and Africa, so too did the mysteries of the unexplored oceans. The seminal event in the founding of the science of oceanography was the 1872-76 Challenger expedition. As the first true oceanographic cruise, this laid the groundwork for an entire academic. In response to a recommendation from the Royal Society, The British Government announced in 1871 an expedition to explore worlds oceans, charles Wyville Thompson and Sir John Murray launched the Challenger expedition. The Challenger, leased from the Royal Navy, was modified for scientific work, under the scientific supervision of Thomson, Challenger travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles surveying and exploring. On her journey circumnavigating the globe,492 deep sea soundings,133 bottom dredges,151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations were taken, around 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H. M. S, Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
