Uncovering the Secrets of the Ocean Floor

Here’s another 20th Century “hidden figure”: Cartographer Marie Tharp. She processed the oceanographic data and produced the ocean floor maps proving Alfred Wegener‘s theory of continental drift. Helen Czerski explains it in this video from the Royal Institution of Great Britain, animated by Rosanna Wan.

More:

“Seeing Is Believing: How Marie Tharp Changed Geology Forever,” Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian Magazine

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Pandas: Unshakeable

Many animals at DC’s National Zoo were upset by the recent earthquake. Even before the quake struck, red ruffed lemurs were alarm-barking, Iris the orangutan yelled, and the flamingos huddled together in a big pink ball.

The Giant Pandas were neither stirred nor shaken. They just sat there, chewing bamboo. Those critters are tough. They’re from China. They were probably thinking: “Pah. You call that an earthquake?”

Earthquake Aftershock

For your post-earthquake dining and dancing pleasure, Eilen Jewell performs a classic 1960 song by Johnny Kidd.

Related:

“Sheet Music of the Week: All Shook Up Edition,” Pat Padua, In The Muse blog, Library of Congress

“At least 5 aftershocks registered after East Coast quake,” AP via USA Today

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Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length. Yes, we know about the Wanda Jackson–Jack White performance on Letterman.

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Earthquake Today. Next: Hurricane.

Phil Plait’s animation (above) shows how the shock of today’s earthquake rippled across the country.  The seismic wave also rolled across the Blogosphere and Twitterverse:

Seismic Sisterhood: Boobquake

Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi recently asserted that immodest female dress causes earthquakes. Purdue University student Jen McCreight disagreed, and urged other women to join her in a day of décolletée, a worldwide scientific experiment called Boobquake. On Monday they did, risking rumblings of Earth’s tectonic plates by ample exposure of cleavage.

Boobquake was a bust. Ayatollah 1, ladies 0.