![\"Left:](\"http:\/\/blog.ldeo.columbia.edu\/2015report\/files\/2014\/05\/heezen-tharp-images-ar14-800x400.jpg\")
<\/a>Left: Cartographer Marie Tharp and geophysicist Bruce Heezen. Right: Marie Tharp translated soundings collected at sea into the world\u2019s first map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Heezen and Tharp Fracture Zones, a pair of fracture zones located in the South Pacific Ocean, are named for the late Heezen and Tharp, who together produced the first comprehensive map of the global seafloor in 1977.<\/p><\/div>\n
The geographic distribution of the features named for Lamont scientists is vast. It ranges from the largest seamount on the Arctic Ocean’s Gakkel Ridge, named for pioneering geophysicist Marcus Langseth, to the South Pacific’s Heezen and Tharp Fracture Zones, named for\u00a0the late geophysicist Bruce Heezen and cartographer Marie Tharp, who together produced the first comprehensive map of the global seafloor in 1977.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names decides what names go on natural features on official government maps. There are naming authorities in other countries, too, but for the most part their names coincide with U.S. designations. In the continental United States, natural-feature names are restricted to people who have been dead at least five years. But in Antarctica and on the vast seafloor, the rules are a bit looser. Thus, many features there bear the names of living scientists.<\/p>\n