Explore the ocean floor and ancient Earth. Compare the book’s diagrams with actual landscapes and spacecraft records. Each reference keeps its own source, method and date.
Go to the primary sources Research Review resources ↓Read the Online chapter reader alongside its diagrams, references and proposed tests. The companion’s chapter reader follows the Vision Edition.
The Tharp ocean-floor map and the published PALEOMAP reconstruction remain dedicated references.
Explore both maps ↓02 / IMAGES & RECORDSFourteen credited field, satellite and planetary images, with processing and original source links.
Open the image library →03 / THE BOOK’S CONNECTIONSEighteen story beats connect the authors’ sequence to the full chapters, diagrams and 3D work.
Follow the story guide →
Turn the globe and trace the ridges, trenches and continental margins in the original map. Open the map study to inspect modern numerical depth profiles alongside it.
Explore Tharp in 3DThe historical artwork and the numerical terrain are separate sources. The painting’s colors are not a depth scale.
The published PALEOMAP images on a dedicated reference globe, paired with the authors’ reconstructed elevations and ocean depths.
Explore PALEOMAP in 3DChoose 250 Ma for Pangea, 0 Ma for today, or any of the 109 published stages reaching back 540 million years. Rotate, zoom and inspect raw terrain heights.
A separate published reference, like the Tharp globe. Ancient terrain and shorelines are reconstructed estimates; our experimental model is linked below.
Published coastlines, land heights and ocean depths now drive our Pangea-to-today surface. Explore the derived transitions between 51 dated maps, or open the separate continental material study. Both reference globes above remain independent.
From a glacier front in Greenland to Caloris on Mercury, compare the book’s account with a specific observed feature. Credits, acquisition dates and scientific image processing travel with each record.
Browse all fourteen images →
Primary sources for closer reading. External links open in a new tab.
The original 1977 map, its creators and the observations behind its painted ocean landscape.
Visit ColumbiaEstimated ancient land elevations and ocean depths, with the method and limits of the PaleoDEM reconstructions.
Read at EarthByteThe 2019 model reconstructs plate motion, rifting and continental deformation from the Triassic to today.
Paper & model dataA global elevation compilation, with a source-type grid distinguishing measurements from other data types.
Explore GEBCO 2026A global relief model combining land and ocean data, with separate ice-surface and bedrock versions.
Explore NOAA ETOPOLinked research is provided for comparison and further study. Each dataset and reconstruction retains its own methods, dates and limitations.
Browse the 69 book plate placements ↗ · Open the original research and references ↗