Bruce Charles Heezen (; April 11, 1924 – June 21, 1977) was an American geologist. He worked with oceanographic cartographer

Marie Tharp Marie Tharp (July 30, 1920 – August 23, 2006) was an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer. In the 1950s, she collaborated with geologist Bruce Heezen to produce the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. Her cartograp ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

to map the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North A ...

in the 1950s.

Biography

Heezen was born in

Vinton, Iowa Vinton is a city in Benton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 4,938 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, a decrease from 5,102 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. It is also part of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Cedar Rapids Ceda ...

. An only child, he moved at age six with his parents to

Muscatine, Iowa Muscatine ( ) is a city in Muscatine County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,797 at the time of the 2020 census, an increase from 22,697 in 2000. The county seat of Muscatine County, it is located along the Mississippi River. The lo ...

, where he graduated from high school in 1942. He received his B.A. from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...

in 1947. He received his M.A. in 1952 and a Ph.D in 1957 from

. Heezen collaborated extensively with cartographer

. He interpreted their joint work on the Mid-Atlantic ridge as supporting S. Warren Carey's

Expanding Earth Theory The expanding Earth or growing Earth hypothesis argues that the position and relative movement of continents is at least partially due to the volume of Earth increasing. Conversely, geophysical global cooling was the hypothesis that various feat ...

, developed in the 1950s, but under Tharp's influence "eventually gave up the idea of an expanding earth for a form of continental drift in the mid-1960s." Tharp was Heezen's assistant while he was a graduate student and he gave her the task of drafting seafloor profiles. When she showed Heezen that her plotting of the North Atlantic revealed a rift valley, Heezen initially dismissed it. Eventually they discovered that not only was there a North Atlantic rift valley, but a mountain range with a central valley that spanned the earth. They also realized that the oceanic earthquakes they had been separately plotting fell within the rift, a revolutionary theory at the time. He presented this mid-ocean rift and earthquake theory at Princeton in 1957. At that lecture, preeminent geologist

Harry Hess Harry Hess (born July 5, 1968) is a Canadian record producer, singer and guitarist best known as the frontman for the Canadian hard rock band Harem Scarem. Hess has used his recording studio (Vespa Music Group) to work with many famous acts, ...

told Heezen, "Young man, you have shaken the foundations of geology!" Heezen died of a heart attack in 1977 while on a research cruise to study the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

aboard the NR-1 submarine.

Honors and awards

*1964: Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal in Oceanography awarded by the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, i ...

*1973: Cullum Geographical Medal awarded by the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

The Oceanographic Survey Ship USNS ''Bruce C. Heezen'' was christened in honor of him in 1999. Heezen Canyon is a large underwater canyon in the NW Atlantic, on the edge of the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

Heezen Glacier Heezen Glacier () is a glacier flowing northeast from the eastern portion of the Wegener Range and entering Violante Inlet east of Mount Reynolds, on the Black Coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica. It was mapped by the United States Geological Surve ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

was named after him in 1977.

References

External links

* *
Manuscript painting of Heezen-Tharp "World ocean floor" map by Berann
— Library of Congress Catalog 1924 births 1977 deaths University of Iowa alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty 20th-century American geologists American oceanographers People from Vinton, Iowa People from Muscatine, Iowa Recipients of the Cullum Geographical Medal Tectonicists {{US-geologist-stub