Ryszard Gradziński

JERZY G£AZEK

(1936 – 2009)

Jerzy G³azek, pro fes sor emer i tus of the Adam Mickiewicz Uni ver -sity in Poznañ, cor re spond ing mem ber of the Pol ish Acad emy of Arts and Sci ences, mem ber of the Pol ish Geo log i cal So ci ety, died in Poznañ on July 3rd, 2009.

The son of school teach ers, Jerzy was born in Warszawa on July 10th, 1936. He went to sec ond ary school in Wroc³aw, and there he started his higher ed u ca tion in ge ol ogy, but con tin ued it and grad u ated (in 1959) at the Uni ver sity of War saw (UW). He ob -tained his Ph. D. de gree at the De part ment of Ge ol ogy of the same uni ver sity in 1966; his the sis was en ti tled “Ge ol ogy of the Lang Khuan area in north ern Viet nam in re la tion to the struc ture of south east ern Asia”. His de gree of Dr. Hab. was re ceived at the same de part ment in 1990 based on the the sis “Palaeokarst of Po -land”. He was still a stu dent when he got his first job in teach ing at the De part ment of Ge ol ogy UW, and, sub se quently, he moved to more se nior po si tions be fore ac cept ing, in 1991, the po si tion of as -sis tant pro fes sor of the Adam Mickiewicz Uniwersity in Poznañ (UAM), and head of the De part ment of Dy namic and Re gional Ge ol ogy.

The in ter ests and re search of Jerzy G³azek em braced a wide scope of geo log i cal sub jects in clud ing re gional ge ol ogy, dy namic ge ol ogy (es pe cially the pro cesses re lated to karst), stra tig ra phy, palaeo ge ogra phy and the is sues re lated to min eral re sources. He car ried on his re search in the Tatra Moun tains, Holy Cross Moun -tains, Kraków-Wieluñ Up land, Lublin Area, Wielkopolska Area, and, more over, some re gions of Viet nam, Czech Re pub lic, Slovakia, Ger many and Bul garia. The re sults of his re search had ma -jor im pli ca tions for ge ol ogy and meth od ol ogy of re search. The list of his achieve ments is long, here only some are pre sented.

He dem on strated (in the pub li ca tion with J. Kutek, 1972) that dur ing most of the Me so zoic, the area of the pres ent Holy Cross Mts. was not emerged – as pre vi ously thought – but was lo cated in the Dan ishPol ish Trough, was sub jected to sub si dence, and be -came cov ered with sed i ments a few kilo metres in thick ness. These were eroded af ter the up lift only by the close of the Me so zoic.

The stud ies by Jerzy G³azek on the brown coal de posit at Be³-chatów en abled rec og ni tion of very com pli cated tec ton ics of that

area. These re sults were of im por tance for the in ter pre ta tion of other struc tures in the Pol ish Low land. The stud ies at Be³chatów were also the base for the hy poth e sis on suberosional or i gin of other brown coal de pos its in Po land. He also pre sented the hy poth e sis on the halotectonictranspressive or i gin of the Wieluñ Struc -ture.

Ow ing to his re search in the Tatra Moun tains, Jerzy G³azek dem on strated that in the Neo gene, the de for ma tion in these moun tains was much stron ger than it was as sumed be fore. Of con sid er -able im por tance was the dis cov ery of the tuffite layer in the Eocene con glom er ate. He dem on strated that the red con glom er ate at the base of the Tatra Eocene is of karst or i gin. To gether with E. Zastawniak, he re vised the Eocene macroflora from the Tatras (2000).

One of his main in ter ests was karst. He stud ied these phe nom -ena for many years. At first these stud ies were fo cused on Tatra caves, how ever, soon they em braced other ar eas of Po land. He con cen trated on fos sil karst of var i ous ages and on uti liz ing the karst phe nom ena for palaeogeographic and palaeotectonic re con -struc tions. Jerzy G³azek worked ei ther by him self, or was a part of re search groups of spe cial ists of var i ous fields. In most cases he was the ini ti a tor of a given re search, and, as a rule, the first au thor of pub li ca tions. Of his nu mer ous pub li ca tions, I should men tion “Karst of Po land” sec tion of the Elsevier mono graph Karst, im por -tant karst ar eas of the north ern hemi sphere (1972), and Paleo-karst of Po land, sec tion in the vol ume PaleoPaleo-karst, A Sys tem atic and Re gional Re view (1989), pub lished by Elsevier and Ac a de -mia. It must be added that he was one of the four ed i tors of this vol ume.

The in tro duc tion by Jerzy G³azek of phys i cal meth ods for dat -ing of karst de pos its was pi o neer -ing in Po land. Most of all, this method was used for dat ing of speleothems by the U-se ries method. These in ves ti ga tions, car ried on to gether with Dr. R. S. Harmon, started dur ing his stay in Glas gow in 1978, and were later in tro duced in Po land. Ow ing to his re search and pub li ca tions on karst, Pro fes sor Jerzy G³azek was con sid ered the top Pol ish spe -cial ist in that area; he was also highly val ued by the in ter na tional com mu nity of ge ol o gists.

Pub li ca tions authored or co-authored by Jerzy G³azek amount to nearly 400; of these some 50 are orig i nal sci en tific pa pers, some of them are sec tions of in ter na tional mono graphs, more than 20 are com pre hen sive ar ti cles in pro ceed ings of in ter na tional con gresses and sym po sia. Other pub li ca tions are con fer ence ab stracts, re -views, sec tions of ac a demic hand books and ex cur sion guides. The im pact of his pa pers was very high, as they were cited not only in ar ti cles, but also in in ter na tional hand books and spe cial ist vol -umes.

For many years, Jerzy G³azek par tic i pated ac tively in in ter na -tional sci en tific meet ings, and was of ten in vited to give key-note pa pers and to lead sci en tific ses sions. He was also a suc cess ful or ga nizer. He or ga nized many, wider and smaller meet ings, was ac -tive in the Pol ish Geological So ci ety and in Sec tion of Spe le ol ogy of the Pol ish Co per ni cus So ci ety of Nat u ral ists, and, since 1981, he was the leader of this sec tion. Ow ing to his ini tia tive and ef fort, Po land was in cluded, in 1973, in the In ter na tional Un ion of Spe le -ol ogy (UIS). For a few years, he was the ad join sec re tary to this un ion, and in the years 1977–1986 he be came the sec re tary to the Com mis sion of Paleokarst and Speleochronology within UIS. In Po land, he was a mem ber of var i ous com mis sions, com mit tees and sci en tific boards. His lec tures and other teach ing ac tiv i ties were very pop u lar and highly val ued. He con ferred 30 B.Sc. de grees and 7 Ph.D. de grees, and he was highly val ued as a ref eree in var i ous ac a demic pro ce dures. He re ceived var i ous awards and dis tinc -tions. Among oth ers, he was twice (in 1977 and 1991) the re cip i ent of the Maria Markowicz-£ohinowicz Award, and three times he re ceived awards of the Min is ter of High Ed u ca tion and Sci en tific

Re search, a few times the awards of the Dean of the Uni ver sity of War saw. He also re ceived some med als in the Czech Re pub lic, Slovakia and It aly.

Pro fes sor Jerzy G³azek was an em i nent ge ol o gist, highly val ued by the sci en tific com mu nity, a sci en tist of deep and com pre -hen sive knowl edge and a man full of en ergy and ini tia tive, kind to col leagues and pu pils. His un ex pected, grave ill ness dis tanced him, in the fi nal few months of his life, from re search and other ac -tiv i ties, but he will not be for got ten by those who knew him.

Ryszard Gradziñski

Se lected geo log i cal pub li ca tions of Jerzy G³azek

-ogy of the Koszysta Mas sif, High Tatra Moun tains). Acta Geologica Polonica, 2: 281–299.

G³azek, J., 1962. Nowe stanowisko kopalnych wê¿owide³ w Pol-sce (New site of the fos sil Ophiuroidea in Po land). Przegl¹d Geologiczny, 10: 218–219.

G³azek, J. & Wójcik, Z., 1963. Zjawiska krasowe wschodniej czêœci Tatr Polskich (Karst phe nom ena in the east ern part of the Pol ish Tatra Mts.). Acta Geologica Polonica, 13: 91–124. G³azek, J., 1965. Wspó³czesne onkolity w potokach Pó³nocnego

Wietnamu i Tatr Polskich (Re cent onkolites in streams of North Viet nam and the Pol ish Tatra Mts.). Rocznik Polskiego Towarzystwa Geologicznego, 35: 221–242.

Kutek, J. & G³azek., J., 1972. The Holy Cross area, Cen tral Po -land, in the Al pine cy cle. Acta Geologica Polonica, 22: 603– 653.

G³azek, J., Gradziñski, R. & D¹browski, T., 1972. Karst of Po land. In: Herak, M. & Stringfield, V. T. (eds), Karst, Im por tant Karst Re gions of the North ern Hemi sphere. Elsevier, Am ster -dam, pp. 327–340.

G³azek, J., 1973. Znaczenie zjawisk krasowych dla rekonstrukcji paleogeograficznych i paleotektonicznych. (Im por tance of karst phe nom ena for paleogeographic and paleotectonic re -con struc tions). Przegl¹d Geologiczny, 21: 517–523.

Galewski, K. & G³azek, J., 1973. An un usual oc cur rence of Dyti-scidae (Coleoptera) in the si li ceous flowstone in the Up per Mio cene cave at Przeworno, Lower Silesia, Po land. Acta Geologica Polonica, 23: 446–461.

G³azek, J., Trammer, J. & Zawidzka, K., 1973. The Al pine mi cro-fa cies with Glomosphira densa (Pantiæ) in the Muschelkalk of Po land and some re lated paleogeographical and geotectonic prob lems. Acta Geologica Polonica, 23: 463–482.

G³azek, J., Sulimski, A., Szynkiewicz, A. & Wysoczañski-Min-kowicz, T., 1976. Mid dle Pleis to cene karst de pos its with Ursus spelaeous at Draby near Dzia³oszyn, Cen tral Po land. Acta Geologica Polonica, 26: 451–466.

G³azek, J., Lindner, L. & Wysoczañski-Minkowicz, T., 1976. Inter gla cial Mindel I/Mindel II in fos sil bear ing karst at Kozi Grzbiet in the Holy Cross Mts. Acta Geologica Polonica, 26: 377–393.

G³azek, J., Rudnicki, J. & Szynkiewicz, A., 1977. Proglacial caves – a spe cial ge netic type of caves in gla ci ated ar eas, In: Pro -ceed ings of the 7th In ter na tional Speleological Con gress, Shef field, Eng land, Sep tem ber, 1977. Brit ish Cave Re search As so ci a tion, Bridgewater, pp. 215–217.

Bosák, P., G³azek, J., Gradziñski, R. & Wójcik, Z., 1979. Gen e sis and age of sed i ments of the Rudice type in fos silkarst de pres -sions. Èasopis pro mineralogie a geologie, 24: 147–154. Harmon, R.S., G³azek, J. & Nowak, K., 1980. 230Th/234U datings

of trav er tine from the Bilzingen ar chae o log i cal site. Na ture, 248: 132–135.

G³azek, J., 1984. Pierwsze datowania izotopowe nacieków z jaskiñ tatrzañskich i ich konsekwencje dla stratygrafii plejstocenu Tatr. (First iso tope datings of speleothems from Tatra caves and their bear ing on Pleis to cene stra tig ra phy of the Tatra Mts.). Przegl¹d Geologiczny, 32: 39–43.

G³azek, J., 1989. Paleokarst of Po land. In: Bosák, P., Ford, D., G³azek, J. & Horáèek, I. (eds), Paleokarst, a Sys tem atic and Re gional Re view. Elsevier, Am ster dam & Ac a de mia, Prague, pp. 77–105.

Hercman, H., Lauritzen, S.-E. & G³azek, J., 1995. Ura nium-se ries dat ing of speleothems from NiedŸwiedzia and Radochowska Caves, Sudetes (Po land). The o ret i cal and Ap plied Karsto-logy, 8: 37–48.

Hercman, H., Bella, P., G³azek, J., Gradziñski, M., Lauritzen, S.-E. & LÝvlie, R., 1997. Ura nium-se ries of speleothems from Demänova Ice Cave: A step to age es ti ma tion of the Demänova Cave Sys tem. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 67: 439–450.

G³azek, J., Przybycin, A. & Sochaczewski, A., 1998. Tufit wœród zlepieñców górnoeoceñskich Tatr i jego znaczenie stratygra-ficzne. (Tuffite be tween Up per Eocene con glom er ates of the Tatra Moun tains (Carpathians, Po land) and its strati graphic im por tance). Przegl¹d Geologiczny, 46: 622–630.

G³azek, J. & Zastawniak, E., 1999. Terrestial plant fos sils in the transgressive Palaeogene lit to ral/flysch se quence of the Tatra Moun tains (Cen tral Carpathians). Acta Palaeobotanica. Sup -ple ment, 2: 293–301.