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Himalayan Geology, Vol. 30 (1), 2009, pp.101-102 Printed in India
Obituary: Prof. S.K. Ghosh
Prof. S.K. Ghosh, founder of modern structural geology in India passed away
on 30th October, 2008. He was 76. He is regarded one of the top-level
geo-scientists in the world, who led structural geology with a quantitative
approach, explaining different deformation phenomena with theory and
experiments.
Prof. Ghosh was a remarkable teacher in Jadavpur University. He had a nice
balance between teaching and research, which is an essential element of
education in the university system. His teaching shaped the students with
innovative minds. Prof. Ghosh used to carefully blend research elements in
his teaching courses for both undergraduate and post-graduate students. He
always refreshed the class work with materials from the research frontiers.
This mode of his teaching could stimulate students for pursuing research
right at the undergraduate level. He wrote a text book on modern structural
geology, which is unique in its contents. The book presents a variety of
topics by combining classical and modern developments in the subject. Prof.
Ghosh had a deep belief for science learning in the mother language. He
wrote a book on structural geology in Bengali for undergraduate students.
“Science learning through experiments’ was a matter of his great passion. He
developed a school out of this passion. Prof. Ghosh was the first
geo-scientist, who established a laboratory for experimental structural
geology in our country without using any outside resources. He designed and
fabricated the entire laboratory set-up with his own effort. Importantly,
all experiments in his laboratory were performed by using materials
available in our country. World-class work has come out from Prof. Ghosh’s
lab.
The personality of a complete academician trends in different directions,
and his interests go beyond the professional milieu. Prof. Ghosh was a great
connoisseur of literature and art, encompassing both east and west. He was
fluent in French, and used to cultivate the French literature. He once
translated Rabindranath’s poems in French. He never missed the chance to
visit museums whenever he used to go abroad. Collecting books on paintings
and sketches was his habit. Prof. Ghosh possessed a fine quality for
appreciation of colours and techniques used by painters of different times.
He had a special skill in doing elegant sketches of field structures on
field notebooks, which are scientifically as well as aesthetically
wonderful.
Prof. Ghosh held a long research career in theoretical and experimental
structural geology, beginning in early sixties. Prof. Ghosh never took
retirement from active work, and he remained active even during his last
days in home. In the early stage of his career he worked in a number of
Indian tectonic belts, such as the Singhbhum and the Rajasthan mobile belts.
His field investigation resolved some crucial problems in structural
interpretations, like syntectonic emplacement of Kuilapal pluton in
Singhbhum. During 1966, his research took a new direction. He went to Prof.
Hans Ramberg’s laboratory in Upsala University, Sweden, where he did
pioneering experimental studies on a variety of problems dealing with buckle
folds. These experimental studies triggered a new thought towards
interpretations of folding in shear deformations. Naturally deformed rocks
often show a wide variation in fold geometry, the analysis of which is an
important issue in structural geology. Using multilayer models Prof. Ghosh
demonstrated for the first time the mechanics of folds with sharp and smooth
curvatures as a function of interlayer gliding properties and the nature of
confinement of multilayers. Prof. Ghosh had a special fascination for
working on interfering fold waves. He began to work on this topic in
collaboration with Prof. Ramberg. Earlier geologists used to interpret the
interfering fold patterns using kinematic models. However, the work of Ghosh
and Ramberg explained contrasting interfering fold patterns by applying the
mechanics of superposed buckling in layers. The patterns were elegantly
demonstrated in laboratory test models. He later advanced this study with
his students in Jadavpur University. In the second visit to Prof. Ramberg’s
laboratory during early seventies, Prof. Ghosh dealt with a new research
topic concerning the deformation and kinematics of rigid or stiff inclusions
floating in a continuous matrix. A series of fundamental research papers
came out of this research programme. The paper by Ghosh and Ramberg that
appeared in Tectonophyics in 1976 has become a classic one. In this study
they have given a detailed account for rotation of single elongate
inclusions in a flowing viscous matrix. Any studies in this field even now
must cite Ghosh and Ramberg (1976). Prof. Ghosh had a beautiful mind for
theorizing phenomena he used to notice either in field or experimental
models. For example, he developed a theoretical analysis of the rotation
rates of strain ellipse and a passive surface in non-coaxial deformations,
and explained why foliation-along slip occurs in schistose rocks that he
observed in Ghatsila and elsewhere. In India, Prof. Ghosh held a long
collaboration with Prof. Sudipta Sengupta, who is a leading structural
geologist at the international level. Prof. Sengupta did her Ph. D under the
supervision of Prof. Ghosh during early seventies. Their work covered a wide
range of topics, like deformation of inclusions, shear zone kinematics,
superposed folding and boudinage structures. These studies appear as a
landmark contribution from our country.
A real academician develops a school of thoughts, where his or her students
splay like branches from that shchool. Prof. Ghosh was indeed a tree-like
figure, stemming out with a large number of Ph. D students. He had a
completely different approach to supervising work, without exerting any loud
force upon the Ph. D fellows. However, he could silently motivate and
finally get his students involved in the research work.
Prof. Ghosh is survived by his wife, Sheila Ghosh and son, Prof. Abhik Ghosh.
The name- S.K. Ghosh is going to remain alive in the field of structural
geology for much longer time.
Nibir Mandal
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata |
