Kalman Szepeshazy

* Felsőbalog, 1919 – † Budapest, March 3, 2008 / geologist. ; ; &nbsp, ; ; He came from a forester family. He began his school studies in his native village, finished high school in Rimaszombat and decided here that he would study geography and natural history in the future. He was interested in plants, collected cacti, but also studied butterflies and caterpillars. After graduating from high school, in 1937 he became a student of the natural history and geography teacher training department of the Czech-language Charles University in Prague, where he was primarily influenced by the outstanding Czech geologist Radim Kettner (1891–1967). However, from the autumn of 1938 he continued his university studies not in Prague but in Budapest. Among his teachers – as can be read in his memoirs written in his old age – he liked the geography professor Jenő Cholnoky (1870–1950) the most. At the same time, he critically assessed the teaching of geology and later often came into conflict with the academicians favored by the authorities (e.g. Elemér Vadász), who incorrectly explained the deep geological structure of Hungary. His desire to become a mapping geologist did not come true. After graduating from university, he collected rock samples for his doctoral dissertation in the areas returned to Hungary: Transcarpathia, Transylvania and Ajnácskő in Gömör County. He obtained a teaching degree in 1942 and a doctoral degree in 1943. ; After that, he was immediately drafted and became a corporal with a corporal badge in the Kézdivásárhely mountain border patrol battalion. Following the Romanian advance, he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in the last days of August 1944 and spent four years in Arkhangelsk, located on the White Sea. On July 23, 1948, he arrived in Debrecen via Máramarossziget, and from there he went to Budapest, where he temporarily worked as a staff member of the Geological Institute, but his position was not finalized, but in 1949 he became a research geologist at the nationalized MAORT and became involved in hydrocarbon exploration in Hungary. Here he also had to master a new field of expertise, the knowledge of which was primarily of an engineering and technical nature. At that time, he began to deal with the examination of rocks in deeper layers and tried to collect core samples obtained during drilling. However, he did not have the opportunity to examine them regularly. In 1964, he became a staff member of the Geological Institute and became involved in the geological mapping of the Great Plain. However, his deep geological research did not receive sufficient support, and he was unable to systematize the core samples he collected. ; He planned to write four major summary works, but only one of them was completed. In this he listed the Upper Cretaceous–Paleogene formations of the Great Plain. He published details of the material from the other three summaries in individual issues of the General Geological Review. He was convinced that the basement of the central part of the Carpathian Basin was not some intermediate mass, some ancient rigid massif, but the formation of the movement zone of the Alpine orogeny cycle, which is formed by igneous and sedimentary rocks, ; but these were disturbed by strong tectonic processes in the Upper Cretaceous. His most significant discovery was the discovery of the cause of the gasification of the flushing mud that triggered gas eruptions. In this, osmosis and the behavior of superheated vapors primarily play a decisive role. He retired in 1980. After the change of regime, he worked for the Rákóczi Association and financially supported talented young Hungarians from the Uplands. He often returned to his native village and was laid to rest there in accordance with his last will.