Ian Graham Gass, 20 March 1926 - 8 October 1992

Abstract

Ian Gass had two major claims to scientific fame. As a geologist, his early work on the Troodos Complex in Cyprus played an important part in the development of seafloor- spreading theory and the understanding of the nature of the oceanic crust. With Masson- Smith, he was the first to suggest that the ultramafic rocks forming the lower part of the sequence were originally a part of the earth’s mantle and, later, that the complex, including the pillow lavas, represents a section through oceanic crust and its underlying mantle. Troodos became a model for ‘obducted’ oceanic crust and mantle, that is to say slices of oceanic rocks thrust up to higher levels during plate collisions, now preserved at the continental surface, and recognized in many other parts of the globe. His second claim results from his appointment in 1969 as the Foundation Professor of Earth Sciences at the Open University. His department rapidly became a research centre with a first-class international reputation in research as a result of his firm direction and the efforts of the well- equipped staff and research-workers on site. The teaching methods developed, moreover, inspired a veritable host of enthusiastic students. The Open University owes much to Ian, for his early demonstration that it could compete in academic excellence with conventional universities. At the time of his death, Gass had been at the Open University for 23 years and was held in extraordinary reverence by his colleagues and former students.