Map a-day-in May (a thirty-one cabinet display) Tanya Atwater A geophysicist and marine geologist and professor emerita at UC Santa Barbara, played a pivotal role in transforming our understanding of Earth's dynamic surface during the "Tectonic Revolution" of the 1960s. Her groundbreaking research connected magnetic patterns on the ocean floor to the emerging theory of seafloor spreading, providing quantitative evidence that supported the concept of a moving Earth. Atwater’s influential paper, "Implications of Plate Tectonics for the Cenozoic Tectonic Evolution of Western North America," laid the foundational framework for understanding the tectonic development of the region. Beyond her scientific contributions, Atwater is deeply committed to science communication—educating students of all ages and collaborating with media outlets, museums, and educators to make Earth science accessible and inspiring for all.

[portion] Tectonic Map of the East Central Pacific Ocean. In memory of H.W. Menard. Compilation by Tanya Atwater and Jeff Severinghaus. 1988.

Tectonic Map of the Northeast East Pacific Ocean. In memory of H.W. Menard. Compilation by Tanya Atwater and Jeff Severinghaus. 1988.

Tanya Atwater, notable expert in the plate tectonic history of western North America, earned her BA in geophysics from UC Berkeley and PhD in marine geophysics from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. As a professor of plate tectonics at UC Santa Barbara (1980-2007), she had a profound impact on geology students with her incredible skill of using various means of communication, including animation technology, to illustrate the mechanisms of tectonic movement. In 1968, she co-authored a research paper Changes in Direction of Sea Floor Spreading which was published in the journal Nature and identified the faulted nature of ocean floor spreading centers. She is best known for her research and published papers on propagating rifts near the Galapagos Islands and the history of the San Andreas fault system. Her research and animation work illustrate her explanation that 40 million years ago, when the Farallon Plate was subducting beneath the North American and Pacific Plates, the lower half was entirely subducted beneath Central and Southern California, but the upper half of the plate did not sink and became the Juan de Fuca plate, with the San Andreas Fault forming a major plate boundary between the Pacific and North American Plates. The Channel Islands and Santa Ynez mountains rotated due to the northward pull of the Pacific half of the San Andreas fault. Atwater became a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1975, received the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for top research article in the journal Science in 1980, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997, received the National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars in 2002 – with which she created the UCSB Educational Multimedia Visualization Center, and the Penrose Medal from GSA in 2019, as well as numerous awards for teaching and mentorship. From AEG website "Women’s History Month – American Women in the Geosciences"

Map a-day-in May (a thirty-one cabinet display)
Tanya Atwater Geophysicist who played a pivotal role in transforming understanding of Earth's surface during the Tectonic Revolution of the 1960s. More info #cartobibliography tinyurl.com/y5cv3vuz #TanyaAtwater #TectonicRevolution #MapDayMay25 #WCWMC