The ties that bind: Soil surveyor William Edgar Tharp and oceanographic cartographer<br/>Marie Tharp

The link between soil science and geology is personified in the American father and
daughter: soil surveyor William Edgar Tharp (1870-1959) and oceanographic
cartographer Marie Tharp (1920-2006). From 1904 to 1935, W. E. Tharp mapped soils in
14 states for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and campaigned during the late 1920searly
1930s to raise awareness of the high rates of soil erosion from croplands. The
lifestyle of the federal soil surveyor in the United States during the early 20th century
involved frequent household moves, and it played a formative role in Marie Tharp’s
childhood. Her path to a career in geology was molded by this family experience, by
mentors encountered in the classroom, and by social barriers that faced women scientists
of that era.