Editing Bruce C. Heezen (section)

==Biography==
Heezen was born in [[Vinton, Iowa]]. An only child, he moved at age six with his parents to [[Muscatine, Iowa]], where he graduated from high school in 1942. He received his B.A. from the [[University of Iowa]] in 1947. He received his M.A. in 1952 and a Ph.D in 1957 from [[Columbia University]].
[[File:(Manuscript painting of Heezen-Tharp World ocean floor map by Berann).jpg|thumb|Painting of the Mid-Ocean Ridges by [[Heinrich C. Berann|Heinrich Berann]] (1977) based on the scientific profiles of Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen]]
Heezen collaborated extensively with cartographer [[Marie Tharp]]. He interpreted their joint work on the Mid-Atlantic ridge and the [[East Pacific Rise]] as supporting [[S. Warren Carey]]'s [[Expanding Earth Theory]], developed in the 1950s,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Oreskes |first=Naomi |title=Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History Of The Modern Theory Of The Earth |date=2003 |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=0813341329 |page=23 |author-link=Naomi Oreskes}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=O'Connell|first=Suzanne|date=August 8, 2020|title=Marie Tharp's maps revolutionized our knowledge of the seafloor|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/marie-tharps-maps-revolutionized-our-knowledge-of-the-seafloor/2020/08/07/d9d112bc-d767-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html?hpid=hp_national1-8-12_oceanfloor-725pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans}}</ref> When she showed Heezen that her plotting of the North Atlantic revealed a rift valley, Heezen initially dismissed it as "girl talk."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Tharp|first=Marie|date=April 1, 1999|title=Connect the Dots: Mapping the Seafloor and Discovering the Mid-ocean Ridge|url=https://www.whoi.edu/news-insights/content/marie-tharp/|access-date=August 8, 2020|website=Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute}}</ref>  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.<ref name=":1" />  They also realized that the oceanic earthquakes they had been separately plotting fell within the rift, a revolutionary theory at the time.<ref name=":0" /> He presented this mid-ocean rift and earthquake theory as his own work at Princeton in 1957.<ref name=":1" /> At that lecture, preeminent geologist [[Harry Hammond Hess|Harry Hess]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Harry Hammond Hess |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/harry-hammond-hess |access-date=2020-08-09 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> told Heezen, "Young man, you have shaken the foundations of geology!"<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Although Marie Tharp was later recognized and credited for her work on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it was Heezen who, at the time in 1956, put out and received credit for the discovery that was made, leaving off Tharp's name.

Heezen died of a heart attack in 1977 while on a research cruise to study the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near [[Iceland]] aboard the [[NR-1 Deep Submergence Craft|NR-1 submarine]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.whoi.edu/sbl/liteSite.do?litesiteid=9092&articleId=13407 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070108024713/http://www.whoi.edu/sbl/liteSite.do?litesiteid=9092&articleId=13407 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2007-01-08 | title=Marie Tharp Bio | publisher=[[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]] | date=2006-12-12 | access-date=2008-06-02}}</ref>