Hello everyone and welcome to mysteries of science again. My name's Dan and I'm the editor of

Science and Nature, which is the monthly magazine from the team behind The Week Junior. And I'm

Stevie, the deputy editor. On this podcast, we explore the strange phenomena and bizarre events that

have left scientists scratching their heads.

Today, we have a special episode to celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science,

which falls on 11th of February.

This day aims to champion women in science and encourage more girls to get involved in STEM subjects.

Fantastic, Stevie. I have got a big mystery for you today. Something that's always left me scratching my head.

I was just wondering, have you ever looked closely at a map of the world and seen that the continents, well, they just look as if they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Why would that be?

Yes, you're right, they do.

And the way the Earth's landmasses are arranged is a long-standing mystery and one that was only resolved thanks to the work of one of the 20th century's greatest mapmakers, Marie Tharp.

We're going to tell the story of all of Marie Tharp's incredible discoveries,

including some mysterious mountains of the deep.

This is Mysteries of Science.

So, Stevie, tell the listeners, tell me who was Marie Tharp?

Well, some of you may have heard about her back in November 22 when she appeared in a Google Doodle.

I do remember that one, yeah.

It was the 21st of November, 2022, I think.

And if you would like to see it for yourself, it's really cool, you can go to Google.com forward slash doodles and they're all there to have a look at.

Yep. Well, we've got one of the people behind that doodle to talk to us about who

Marie Tharp was. Hi, I'm Becky and I am a geologist and science communicator.

...