Geothermics 33 (2004) 561–562

In MemoriamGuðmundur Pálmason

(1928–2004)

Guðmundur Pálmason, one of the pioneers of geothermal research, passed away on March11, 2004, in his 76th year.

Guðmundur was born in a rural area of western Iceland on June 11, 1928. After graduatingfrom Reykjavık Grammar School in 1949, he went to Sweden to study technical physics atthe Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He graduated in 1955 and, two years later,received a M.Sc. degree from Purdue University in Indiana, USA. In 1971 he defended hisD.Sc. thesis in geophysics at the University of Iceland.

In 1955, Guðmundur joined the small geothermal team at the State Electricity Authority inIceland, under the supervision of the late Dr. Gunnar Böðvarsson. A year later the Geother-mal Division was formed, which was to become the Geothermal Division of Orkustofnun(Iceland’s National Energy Authority) in 1967. In 2003, the Geothermal Division was trans-formed into the ISOR, the Iceland GeoSurvey.

Guðmundur Pálmason became director of the Geothermal Division in 1964, and was tohold this position until he retired in 1997. During this period the geothermal industry inIceland expanded enormously, the percentage of geothermal heating in Iceland increasingfrom 30 to 40% of all house heating to almost 90%; the high-temperature geothermalfields were also exploited to generate electricity. Under Guðmundur’s management, theGeothermal Division grew from a small workplace with a few employees to a group of over40 experts involved in almost all the geoscience and engineering disciplines related to theexploration and utilisation of geothermal resources.

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Guðmundur soon became an internationally renowned geoscientist, partly because of hiscontribution to geothermal research and partly because of his activity in crustal research inIceland and on the mid-Atlantic ridge. His D.Sc. thesis was a pioneering work involvinga comprehensive study of the Icelandic crust by explosion seismology. In the 1970s hedeveloped a kinematic model of rifting and crustal formation on mid-ocean ridges, withspecial application to the geology of Iceland. This model offered an explanation for manygeological observations. He was also active in heat flow studies and gravity mapping ofIceland.

In 1968, UNESCO convened an international working group in Paris to discuss theactions that were most likely to provide the necessary support and encouragement forgeothermal research and development worldwide. The members of this working group,along with Guðmundur, were C.J. Banwell, Tibor Boldizsar, Jean Goguel, Elena Lubimova,Masami Hayakawa, Jim McNitt, Tsvi Meidav, and Ezio Tongiorgi. This group drew uprecommendations that were eventually to lead to the creation of the journalGeothermics,and the four geothermal training centres in Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Iceland.

Guðmundur was an active member of the international geothermal community but alsoin many other areas. On behalf of the government of Iceland he served on a number ofnational and international committees dealing with a variety of issues, including the Law ofthe Sea. He was leader of the Icelandic delegations to the UN geothermal conferences heldin Pisa in 1970 and in San Francisco in 1975. He served as a geothermal consultant for UNagencies in El Salvador, Mali, North Korea, Philippines, and Taiwan. He was a member ofthe Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, chairman of an international workinggroup on the Earth’s rift systems, a member of the ESF consortium of the Ocean DrillingProgram, and a member of AGU. Guðmundur was, furthermore, actively involved in theIUGG and the International Heat Flow Committee and a member of the Board of Directorsof the Nordic Volcanological Institute. He was also one of the architects of the InternationalGeothermal Association, serving on its first Board of Directors. He was Chairman of theTechnical Programme Committee that organised the World Geothermal Congress held inFlorence in 1995, and was elected the first President of the Geothermal Association ofIceland in the year 2000.

After his retirement in 1997 he started work on a book in Icelandic that was to cover allaspects of geothermal energy in Iceland: its nature, exploration, utilisation and history. Hefinished the manuscript of the book only two weeks before his death. The book is to bepublished in the fall of 2004.

Guðmundur was a good chess player, participating in international tournaments. Indeedhe played in three Olympic Chess Games, in Amsterdam in 1954, in Munich in 1958 andin Havana in 1964, achieving good results in all three.

Guðmundur is survived by his wife, Ólöf Jónsdóttir, and two sons.

Ólafur FlóvenzGeneral Director

ÍSOR (Iceland GeoSurvey), Iceland

Available online 13 July 2004