The Geological Society of America
Special Paper 65
THE FLOORS OF
THE OCEANS
I. The North Atlantic
Text to Accompany the Physiographic Diagram of the North Atlantic

BY
Bruce C. Heezen, Marie Tharp, and Maurice Ewing

Lamont Geological Observatory (Columbia University) Palisades, New York

The Special Papers Series
Of
The Geological Society of America
is made possible
through the bequest of
Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose, Jr.

"Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose to view this great sea-gash, which separates continents, and extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present a scene the most rugged, grand, and imposing. The very ribs of the solid earth, with the foundations of the sea, would be brought to light, and we should have presented to us at one view the empty cradle of the ocean...." (M. F. Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea, 1855.)