Mid-Atlantic Ridge rift valley
The rift valley running along the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and African plates pull apart. Marie Tharp found it in 1952 in echo-sounding profiles; in 1973-1974 Project FAMOUS sent the first crewed submersibles down into it, here west of the Azores.
Dated events and their evidence
- 1952 CE mainstream
Marie Tharp, aligning echo-sounding profiles across the North Atlantic, finds a continuous V-shaped valley along the ridge axis and reads it as a rift; Bruce Heezen at first dismisses it as 'girl talk' source - 1957 CE mainstream
Tharp and Heezen publish their first physiographic map of the North Atlantic floor source - 1974 CE mainstream
Project FAMOUS ends: in 1973 and 1974 the submersibles Alvin, Archimede and CYANA made 44 dives into the rift valley, the first crewed exploration of a diverging plate boundary source - 1977 CE mainstream
National Geographic publishes Tharp and Heezen's map of the whole ocean floor, The World Ocean Floor, painted by Heinrich Berann source
Where
36.8333° N, 33.3500° W
The point is the Project FAMOUS study area at 36 deg 50' N, 'about 700 km west of the Azores (Sao Miguel)' per Wikipedia; the longitude is derived from that distance and is approximate.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Tharp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_FAMOUS
- https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.2002.192.01.11
Each event carries Aion's own evidence grade (mainstream, disputed or speculative). This page repeats what the globe shows for this place.